Indoor Air Quality, how clean is your air?

The air you most often breathe is inside your home. Ever wonder how clean it is?
You air is contaminated with everything that enters your home from the outdoors. That is a given. Did you know that the leading contributor isn’t the air outside though, it’s your cleaning and household products, that’s according to the EPA. You can find some of the nasty things on the labels but it is the stuff not listed that is causing you to breathe toxins. Things like synthetic fragrances and petroleum-distilled chemicals, or VOCs. Research has shown that these toxins lead to all kinds of health problems like generalized sensitivity skin and respiratory irritation, allergies, asthma and some experts believe maybe even autism. Other contributors can be tobacco smoke, VOC’s from, solvents, aerosol sprays, hobby supplies, and dry cleaned clothes , not to mention furniture and carpet .
It is hard to get away from these guys too, because even the mainstream natural and earth friendly cleaners use the solvents from petro chemicals (and yes these come from petroleum, oil that is… wonder why we are so reliant on petroleum?) to extract the “naturally derived” components in their products, the truth is there are better alterative but it’s cheaper to do it the dirty way.

One way to keep the toxins low in your home is to use products you know are clean. Does your cleaner contain any of the known irritants? What about the word “fragrance”, is it on the label? A lot of companies use the ability to trademark fragrances to hide all sorts of dangerous things. Check with the company or find one that discloses ALL their ingredients. Chartreuse Products are one alternative (and the best if you ask me) to conventional cleaners.
If you use a washer and then your dyer be aware that the dryers exhaust will find its way throughout your home. The detergent that you use is as guilty of being toxic as your other household cleaners. Detergent isn’t soap after all. Dryer sheets and fabric softeners are huge culprits too, causing some of the same things that cleaners do, along with other disorders associated with the central nervous system. Using a natural soap, and a dryer sheet (to reduce static cling) but skip the scented ones – will help illuminate things like Chloroform, from your household air.
Plants, nature’s air purifiers are also wonderful for improving air quality. They don’t only purify the air but they restore need oxygen and balance humidity. Bathrooms with mold problems can benefit from a peace lily. There are many plants, a complete list that was put together some time ago originally by NASA that can help in restoring air quality. The type of plant and the number of them per square foot is important in order to maximize the benefits, using the suggested plants with the ratio of one per ten square feet of your home.
Be diligent about what comes into your home, buying furniture that doesn’t contain any toxic glues or pressed woods, as well as avoiding synthetic fabrics will in the long run keep the VOC levels low. Buying paints designed to have NO VOC off gassing will not only protect you from the layers of paint already on your wall but they won’t smell so obnoxious during application and won’t further contribute to the problem.



There are even simpler things you can do too, remove your shoes when in your home. All sorts of pollen and dirt come into your home from your shoes. You can also vacuum your home frequently using a good quality vac with a HEPA filter. If you are looking to upgrade look for one of the newer energy efficient vacuums, because after reading this I expect that you will be using it more often!*( I have a Eureka light weight ,I purchased it at a home improvement store and paid less than a hundred dollars, it has a HEPA and is energy star rated.)Don’t just vacuum the floors either; remember the furniture and drapes trap all sorts of things. Along your base boards and door frames things often accumulate and as you walk are stirred up in to the air. You can change your air filter in you HVAC unit at least once a month, and keep the vents clean. On warm days it doesn’t hurt to open your windows and air out the house. Of course this is a great time to clean out those window sills too!!

Read the label, and check the internet. You can protect the air inside with a little diligence.

Greening in the New Year...A Series of articles to help you begin the green journey

I am planning on writing this month in a series of blogs about simple steps to green. Not only for the planet but for your personal environment too,
~ Indoor Air Quality , what you can do to reduce the toxins in the air you breathe inside your home?
~ How Compost can improve your outdoor life.
~ Sort that garbage and use less garbage bags!
~ Simple steps to making your home more energy efficient

Stay tuned for a new and improved GreenLifeCarolina blog.

Baby Green: Choosing the "better" formula for your little one

I have to say that this is one of my longest researched blogs yet. In case you haven't figured it out I am a huge advocate of breast milk, but I also recognize that there is sometime circumstances where breast feeding solely or at all isn't an option. My own daughter Addy needed formula supplements to save her life, I wasn't producing enough milk to help her rid her body of Bili Rubin during her first weeks of life. I maintained sole breast feeding and she had her levels checked nearly everyday. ultimately though James and I chose to supplement her rather than see her continue to yellow and possibly do irreparable damage to her liver.
There are also those special couples who adopt and thus mothers milk isn't really physically possible. Some mothers have their miracles born too early and their milk never comes in, and there are those moms who just can't get the hang of it try as they may, it just becomes so tiresome and frustrating for them and baby.There are a number of really GOOD reasons why we need a quality choice in formula. This became most apparent to me during what I call a "God moment" this week,when my brother in law, a bachelor, brought me an orphaned kitten he had found. I had to purchase formula for an infant, though not of my species in order to keep it sustained and alive. It was sometime during one of the midnight feedings that it dawned on me that though I advocate breast milk, it truly is important to have a safe healthy alternative to breast milk sometimes.
I was researching the topic from the perspective of not being able to breast feed. What is important to me. Well obviously as close to breast milk as possible, organic, without any additives. I began with what I knew, the main stream brands and their organic options.
What do I mean by organic? A true organic formula whether it is milk to soy based must come from organic certified source ie organic soy beans or an organic cow (no hormone injections and a strict organic vegetable based diet), all the essentials added things like carrots for the beta carotene or other vegetables for fat and vitamin content must also be certified organic before becoming part of the formula. The process by which the formula is made must also be organic, meaning that nothing can be don chemically to alter the ingredients, heat and additives are all strictly monitored.
I was surprised to find that there are a lot of things I didn't know about formula. DHA is all the rage. So what is DHA - it is "fatty acid,that occurs naturally in breast milk.These long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are powerful enough to affect brain and eye development.They work in concert with other fatty acids which make up lipid bi-layers.These lipid bi-layers are found in every cell in the human body.They regulate proteins involved with signaling.The regulation and balance of lipids in these bi-layers is critical for proper cell signaling.Cholesterol is essential for s-acylation which activates and de-activates protein signaling.Disruption of this s-acylation by increasing the amount of unsaturation will have devastating consequences. in breast milk there is a natural regulation not fully understood by scientists". However, they found DHA in breast milk so they thought to add it to formula to make it "just like breast milk"

So we are going organic? UNTIL you get to the process of adding that magic accompaniment that makes the world believe that it is just like breast milk. I have learned that the process used to derive DHA is what I would consider to be "dirty", there is a number of ways but one of the most disturbing is to use bleach - yes bleach to break down the wall on the fat cell in order to extract the DH:,C. cohnii oil (algae) & M. alpina oil (fungus) used in some organic and conventional infant formulas,are treated with hexane solvent (a suspected neurotoxin), acid, and bleach. After reading a blog by Jenn Savedge,I started checking network news sources, like the Washington Post and I FLIPPED OUT! The really disturbing thing is that the FDA knows this and still allows some organics to carry the USDA seal.
I found a few formulas that are certified organic sealed and used nothing toxic extract DHA.A few but they are out there! I have posted a link, on my facebook page and will include in my newsletter,that compares the alternatives to these, this was a great list and included prices.
If organic isn't that important to you then a conventional formula may be your choice, I would recommend avoiding the DHA/ARA additives all together, as the process isn't guaranteed in the least.
Of Course, as anything these days price is one of our biggest concerns, so I also took a look at some of the generic and store brands too. A few of the big box stores have organic options, again I would opt for not getting the DHA/ARA to avoid unnecessary chemical exposures, if you choose to use even the organic store brands.
It comes done to this for me, if I have to use formula I would choose Natures One baby's Only Organic formula... they have organic certification disclose all ingredients and offer explanations for how they get the DHA in the formula. You may be concerned that they don't offer an infant formula, well the baby's only is nutritious enough for infants, it is a labeling tactic to encourage breastfeeding moms to stick to it for the first 12 months... but they told me that on their label - how is that for truth in advertising?
My best advice for any product is to avoid the green washing, find a product that discloses ALL it's ingredients and tells you in plain language how each additive is extracted,if a product is worth your time, trust and dollars then you are worth it enough to that company to be allowed to know what they are asking you to put into your body and the bodies of your family.

Baby Green : Breastfeeding

So, I have to say I was really surprised at the reaction that I got about my post on disposables.
I am proud to announce that I will be breast feeding baby number three.
Why breast feed? Well to start with , it is the design I mean mom comes equipt to do it. My doctor as well as most of the world's doctors state that breastfeeding is better for baby and mother. Your natural immunity is passed to your child through your milk.Studies are showing that not only are babies given moms immunities but they are also at lower risks for ear infections and recently I read for lukemia.Not to mention that mom's recovery time is quicker!
It's convenient.Always the perfect temperature. I have to say i know both sides of the fence on this one and I liked having to roll over pick up Addy and nurse her back to sleep while a peacefully dozed versed having to get up measure and heat water, mix test , feed burp... that was the case with TJ. I also liked not having to carry bottles around. Addy did take formula - she needed supplements.
I never had the problem of eating anything that didn't agree with Addy, I made sure that I had a lot of fluids and ate a well balanced diet but I never avoided any foods for the milks sake. Although, I always avoid alcohol I know that several moms have prepared for an evening out where they planned to have an adult beverage by pumping before going out for enough until they had metabolized the alcohol, and simply "pumped and dumped' the alcohol laced milk.
There is a lot of information out there on breastfeeding, I got the most help with Addy from other moms. I also got a great deal of encouragement from those moms. I think the best advice for a nursing mom is to join a support group, like Le Leche League. There are groups of moms that meet on a regular basis to discuss feeding, naturally.
I think that one of the best things about breast feeding is that sense of satisfaction that comes with knowing you are providing your babies nutrition, the bonding that takes place during nursing is absolutely amazing. I can't describe the feeling that I had looking down at my baby as she nursed and knowing that I was giving her something that no one else could.
What makes breastfeeding green you might ask? Well a few things, primarily to start breastfeed mothers forgo bottles most of the time, so the amount of plastic being produced for bottles is reduced, especially if the "drop in" disposable liners are avoided altogether, no plastic scoops. In exclusively breastfeeding moms aren't taking advantage milk based formulas, which come from obviously cows milk, a good 20% of green house gases come for the dairy farm industry, nursing inadvertent reduce green house gases.Not to mention the energy used to "harvest" the cows milk. Breast milk, always the the perfect temp required no energy, well no outside energy. You don't have to use electricity or natural gas to heat a bottle, no water or detergent that would pollute that water is used to clean the bottles. Then there is the poop factor,the issue of a breastfed versus formula-fed and the environment. When changing a diaper especially a cloth diaper, you know the difference! Breastfed baby’s waste is much easier to wash from a cloth diaper, as well as the odor is not nearly as bad. When considering the energy and water involved in washing cloth diapers, breast is definitely best!

I plan on writing next on bottle feeding, so what is the big deal with bottles these days anyway?Since having her and using the Avent brand bottles I have learned more about the dangers of plastics and how the constant heating and washing some brands of bottles can cause petro toxins , BPA that leach into the baby's milk and digestive systems. Rest assured though there are green options!