• Eat well!
  
  Follow Mothers & Others New Green Diet, which will help you reduce exposure to synthetic pesticides, guard against certain cancers and high dioxin intake and increase your child’s intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes and fiber. Also, heed fish advisories&mdahs;see our Safe Fish List.

• Make sure your house is lead-free.
  
  Test peeling, chipped or cracking paint (especially on window sills and doors) for lead. See Detecting and Removing Lead Paint for more details. Another way lead exposure can happen in the home is through lead pipes, so test your water, too.

• Don't smoke.
  
  The EPA has begun a campaign for Smoke-Free Homes, based on findings that infants exposed to secondhand smoke have increased health problems.

• Watch out for chemicals in the home.
  
  These include household cleaners, drugs, toiletries, cosmetics, toxic glues and solvents. Keep them out of the reach of children. Buy or make non-toxic, unscented household cleaners using our Recipes for Safer Cleaners and look for low-VOC (volatile organic compounds), less-toxic home furnishings and paints.

• Avoid using pesticides in your home, on your pet, and in your yard.
  
  Use Integrated Pest Management to control pests. For information on least-toxic alternatives, contact Beyond Pesticides/NCAMP.

• Clean up your water.
  
  Call your water company for test results on your public water supply, which is called a Consumer Confidence Report. You may want to have your tap water tested for lead, which can leach from pipes and solder in water mains (see #2, above). There are other possible contaminants to test for, as well. In most cases, water filtration will clean up any problems.

• Avoid plastic.
  
  Especially dangerous are phthalates (possible hormone disruptors and probable carcinogens) in PVC plastic (a.k.a. vinyl, recycling symbol #3) toys, teethers, building materials, and plastic baby bottles. Chemicals in other types of plastic include bisphenol-A and styrene -- both suspected endocrine disruptors.

• Avoid asbestos
  
  While prolonged exposure to asbestos is dangerous, asbestos-containing products that are intact pose no health hazard. Have deteriorating insulation and vinyl flooring made before 1979 tested by a professional.

• Beware of radiation.
  
  Check the radon levels in your home with a long-term radon test, available at hardware stores. For more information, call the EPA Radon Fix-It Line at 800/644-6999 or see their radon website.

• Beware of EMFs (electromagnetic fields).
  
  The intensity of EMFs dissipates with distance, so the farther your child is from an appliance or electrical line, the better. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has a useful factsheet on EMFs.

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