Nearly Green » Organic Living

A Shower To Die For

Jessica — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:34:58 +0000

If you are anything like me you are a busy person that doesn’t really have that much time alone or to yourself so your shower is like a haven for retreat. You enjoy the silence, the warmth, the soothing rhythm of the water as it beats down on you, and the wonderful smell of a carefully selected body wash. It is the one place that I can truly think and decompress. I never really gave much thought to the curtain that provided me a modest amount of privacy in case someone walked in on me. However, I did notice if it started to get a little funky and needed to be replaced. I would spend hours looking at all of the different designs and price trying to find that perfect mix of cute and inexpensive. I typically went with one of the printed plastic kind so that I didn’t have to buy a liner as well.

This worked well for me until recently when I started looking at buying a new shower curtain and wanted to make sure my decision was more in line with my goals for living greener. So I did a bit of research looking for a shower curtain that was eco-friendly. What I found out about my current shower curtain was more than a little disturbing.

Currently the most common type of shower curtains are made with PVC (polyvinyl chloride). This particular compound can release harmful toxins into the air especially when heated. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice states that the chemicals are released in the most concentration when the product is first opened and for the following month after use. High heat conditions increase the release of the toxins. I’m not sure about all of you but some days the hotter the better is my shower preference. The other big concern is also that PVC can not be adequately recycled meaning that most products end up in the landfill or worse end up at recycling plants contaminating entire bins of recyclables. The code #3 means that it contains PVC and should have special consideration for recycling.

You can find the article by CHEJ here. You can also check out the study that CHEJ did here. The study lists all of the toxins that can be released from PVC products and what the consequences of exposure maybe.

The government does not feel that the exposure or the toxins released is anything to be concerned with that exposure is negligible and not enough to change manufacturing standards. I can agree that exposure is probably small on an individual exposure basis but what I’m more concerned with is continued small dose exposure over time. Our life is so filled with chemical attacks shouldn’t we do everything we can to limit the exposure that we can when we can?

I know for me and my family we have decided to phase out pvc where we can and we started with our shower curtain. The good news is that the major retailers are catching on and offering pvc free shower curtains at reasonable prices. You can check out the following retailers to help you make the switch:

Wal-Mart PEVA shower curtains starting at $10.00

Target PEVA shower curtain $15.00

IKEA shower curtains for $4.00 (all selections are pvc free as they phased out pvc shower curtains 11 years ago)

You can also chose cotton or hemp shower curtains but need to be more cautious with mold for those options and you typically need a liner. The other option of course is glass doors or a walk-in shower that does not require a curtain.

So What Can I Do?

Change out your shower curtain to a non-pvc style to limit your exposure. If you shower curtain is more than a month old the exposure is less of a risk so you can probably just wait until it’s time to replace before buying a new one.

Limit your purchase of PVC products to not only limit exposure but limit waste since they don’t recycle well. Be on the look out for the number 3 on the products recycle code and make sure you don’t mix it with your standard recyclables. Check with Earth 911 to find local centers that handle #3 materials.

Become aware! I learn more and more each day on what I’m really being exposed to on a day to day basis and it amazes me. I know some of it may just be hype but knowledge is power and I want to be powerful and help you be powerful as well. Informed consumers are a force that can help to make change possible.

To Buy Organic, Or To Not Buy Organic? That Is The Question.

Jessica — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:34:27 +0000

On the list of things that I plan to accomplish for living more green I mentioned eating more organic foods as well as more local foods. That may sound wonderful in theory however, there are a few stumbling stones that can stop most people myself included. The initial one being the cost. Since most organic foods are grown without the aid of pesticides or any other junk that shouldn’t be in our food it is more costly to produce. I know that you have to pay for quality but when you are living on a budget every penny counts even when considering your health and the health of our planet. So I did find a couple of articles that give you the heads up on where you should spend the money and where buying organic isn’t as necessary from a chemically altered standpoint.

Essentially the Dirty Dozen ,as it’s called in the media, are all of the products that when available you should always buy organic because the non-organic versions are full of growth hormones, pesticides, and other nasty chemicals that we can certainly do without. You can read more about it The Daily Green or at TLC. However I’m going to give you a list of the top 12 you should by organic the sites will going into detail as to why.

These 12 items you should always buy organic if you can:

Meat
Milk
Coffee (I had no idea that coffee could be full of pesticides)
Peaches
Apples
Sweet Bell Peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Kale
Most leafy greens like lettuce
Grapes
Carrots ( Europe is well on the way to banning use of pesticides on carrots)
Pears

Potatoes (these have recently falling off the list but just recently)

So that is more than twelve but better to be safe than eating chemicals.

Here is the list of items that we could probably skip the organic label on:

Onions
Avocados
Sweet Corn
Pineapple
Mango
Asparagus
Sweet Peas
Kiwi
Cabbage
Eggplant
Papaya
Watermelon
Broccoli
Tomato
Sweet Potato

Essentially the hardier the plant the less pesticides that need to be used and the less chance for the chemicals to be absorbed by the food. A good frame of reference would be if it has a skin that is not typically eaten then it’s probably ok to not buy organic. However that is just a rough frame of reference and my opinion.

So What Can I Do?

Make friends with a local butcher and ask him about the farms that he buys from and if they are organic certified farms or if the animals are free range and grass fed. You can also try to find a local farmer uses organic methods and find out if he sells his livestock for public use and where he gets his meat processed. I actually just got ¼ of a cow from a friend who’s father-in-law owns an organic farm. He was selling the meat for 95 cents a pound!

Grow your own vegetables especially the ones that are at high risk from contamination. This way you don’t have to buy the produce and you know exactly what it has been exposed while it was growing. If that isn’t an option seek out co-ops or community farms that practice organic growing methods.

Be aware of what you are buying. I’m constantly amazed at the amount of unnecessary extras that are found in the food that we buy and eat. If I just took more time realizing what I’m putting into my family’s mouths I probably would make better choices.

Here are a few sites that can help you find local farmers that sell meat and produce in your area. Local Harvest allows you to search by zip code and by what you are looking for ie farmers market or grocery. The Eat Well site also includes restaurants and Canada.

So this is my goal for the next year. A preemptive New Year’s resolution if you will. I will be more aware of what goes into our mouths. I’m sure my husband would say I should include being aware of what comes out of it but one small step at a time .

BPA: Should I Care?

Jessica — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:20:20 +0000

I never really gave much thought to all the hype about BPA when it came out a few years back. This was mostly because my son was done with bottles by that time and when I needed to get bottles for my daughter almost everything was BPA free or at least claimed to be relatively free. I never thought I would have to worry about the food that I was eating until I read a recent article that I found here. (thanks for Detroit Moms for posting the link) It talks about a recent report that lists the levels of BPA in some very popular can goods. The worst culprit is Del Monte Green beans, Cambell’s condensed Chicken Noodle Soup, and Progresso Soups. (For the complete report that is available online go here. )

I’m not typically one who gives into all the hype about the latest thing that is found however,I am paying more attention to try to limit the amount of chemicals that my family ingests because we are trying to live a more organic lifestyle. I did want to find out a little more about why BPA is getting so much attention. I found an article at the Nutrition Action website that does a pretty good job explaining why we need to pay attention to this particular chemical that is found in everything from aluminum can linings to automobiles. The article details the National Institute of Health’s findings that explains that the continued exposure to BPA has led to cancer and reproductive organ deformities in lab animals specifically breast cancer and prostate cancer. According to the FDA there is no need to panic and what we are exposed to is not anything to be concerned with overall. We do have to take this statement with a grain of salt though because their findings are based on testing that was done in the early to mid 80’s and a lot more research has been done since then.

I know that overall it would be impossible to completely limit my family’s exposure to chemicals and with regards to BPA most people are just taking a better safe than sorry approach. I find myself wondering however if the fact that girls and boys are hitting puberty at a younger and younger age every generations isn’t because of some of the chemicals that we have exposed ourselves to during the course of our lives. I also worry about those families that may have a history of breast or prostate cancer and what effect BPA has on their chances of actually presenting with the disease. There is a whole branch of my children’s family history that is unknown to me so I think that I’d much rather play it safe.

So What Can I Do?

Limit the amount of canned groceries you are buying for your family. Look for items in paper or glass containers. Even juice in plastic containers is better because heating the plastic is what puts you most at risk.

Use glass and ceramic dishes to reheat or cook items in your microwave. I found a good starter set of pyrex glass storage bowls here.

Try canning your own produce or blanch and freeze your veggies this year. I will be doing both this coming summer and plan on sharing with you my successes and failures.

I think in the end even if the amount of BPA we are exposed to turns out to be harmless this issue has made me more aware of what I’m putting into my family’s mouthes.