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Top Tips

• A mom offers tips on how to keep your home cool in the summertime without wasting energy or money. A few are quite ingenious, like keeping heat producing appliances away from the thermostat so it isn’t tricked into thinking the room is hotter than it really is.
• With more and more research accumulating about the risks of pesticide exposure to young children, The Daily Green offers four crucial tips for protecting your child from these toxic chemicals.  Kids are in constant contact with the pesticides that can linger on our floors for decades, and what are small doses for us can be harmful doses to them. New research even shows that an important enzyme responsible for breaking down a class of chemicals that includes pesticides, doesn’t develop until age seven, leaving young bodies defenseless.
• A nice concise guide on how to read body care product labels. It breaks down how to tackle the overwhelming ingredients list so we can all keep our lotions and conditioners healthy and environmentally friendly.
• As much as we all love Trader Joe’s, the grocery store has failed Greenpeace’s annual Supermarket Seafood Scorecard due to its unsustainable fish purchasing policies.  A store’s score is determined by their choice to buy and sell fish that are on Greenpeace’s Red List. You can find high ranking stores with sustainable purchasing on Greenpeace’s interactive online list.

Recent Research

• A new study has shown that women exposed to exhaust from freeways and busy streets are much more likely to give birth to premature infants and suffer from preeclampsia, a dangerous illness that involves high blood pressure and is hazardous for both the baby and the mother. The article points out that exposure to exhaust is something virtually impossible for mothers to avoid, and therefore pushing for government action to reduce overall pollution is the most important preventative step. Luckily, the Obama administration has already taken action, proposing to strengthen a key air pollution health standard. This is the first time in 35 years that the EPA has tightened its requirement for nitrogen dioxide released from motor vehicles.
• Researchers have found that babies born by cesarean section undergo genetic changes that make them more susceptible to diseases like asthma and diabetes. Babies-born-by-caesarean-more-prone-to-asthma-study-finds.html. This is most likely due to the high levels of stress these babies endure during the operation, which negatively affects their immune system. This susceptibility must be coupled with an environmental trigger later in life for children to develop these diseases.
• After concerns that artificial turf may be emitting unhealthy amounts of lead, the EPA has found that there is no lead danger from playing on artificial grass. Nevertheless, turf industries have agreed to reduce lead levels over the next three years, because any amount of lead is unsafe. (Other contaminants have yet to be addressed.)

Other News

• A lawsuit has been filed against 16 retailers including H&M, Forever 21, Macy’s, Aldo and Target claiming that the stores sell purses and wallets containing unsafe levels of lead.  Lead is found in vinyl, faux leather, and some paints and dies. Food and other items that have been carried in the bags are especially dangerous for young children. If the allegation is true, the businesses are liable for failing to warn shoppers, especially pregnant women, of the risk.
• One school’s decision to stop serving unhealthy snacks may become national policy. After a school in Kentucky removed junk food from all its vending machines, more kids chose to eat the more well-rounded and healthy cafeteria lunches. Following this success, and others, bills have been introduced in both houses to limit junk food in schools. President Obama views the step as integral in his campaign for healthcare reform.

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