Green Goes With Everything – Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and Cleaner Planet by Sloan Barnett

This is a book I couldn’t put down.  I read it cover to cover in just a few days. 

She writes:

When I was little, green was a color. Years later, it became a movement that could save the 500,000 penguins I saw when I traveled to Antarctica.  Today, there is a new, broader and more personal definition of green.  It is all about the health of our families.   It’s this new green that made me change everything about the way that I live.  All because of what happened to my son one afternoon in New York City nearly 5 years ago.

Sloan is the wife of the owner of the wellness company and green clean I fell in love with in 1993.  While some say she’s really sheparding the message of her husbands investment. I disagree. Even if she is …it’s HER way of contributing. In my mind they both are people out to alter the planet we live on.  She’s done it in a way that has the new wanna be green mind see that it takes alot more than recycling to be green.  For the I want to learn and inquiring mind she gave me a mouthful to chew on. She’s also coming from a perspective of a mom. It’s one thing to be a savvy journalist, it’s another to gather information that paves the way for a cleaner future for our children.

One of my favorite things she said is what is a green product? 

A green product is one that won’t harm you, your children, your pets or the environment inside or outside where your waste goes.  It won’t hang around like an unwanted guest after you use it.  The packaging should be minimum and recycle easily.  It shouldn’t require alot of nonrenewable or even renewable resources to make it, use it or to dispose of it

She describes clean as utterly unscented, not like the house down at the end of my street that puffs enough downy smell into the air it could sink a battleship.  I swear those folks must do perpetual laundry

If gifting green is part of what you are up to, purchasing this book could be the green resource solution oriented guide you are looking for. It’s reasonable priced and all proceeds benefit a worthy cause.

You can purchase Green Goes With Everything by Sloan Barnettat at my website, you will be redirected to amazon, and while I don’t make any money on the sale of the book, the redirection is noted and affiliate fees go directly to cause.

Her Blog
Sloan TV
Her Book’s Website

Take the Body Burden Test - This is really cool!  I scored an 14 out of 100 – the lower the score the better!! What contributed to my score?  A bit of wall to wall carpet, conventional paint and mattress, a few packaged food goods and non-organic foods 

If I can be of help switching your home to green clean please let me know!  

global green usa awards summer 2008 – the barnetts flickr image

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean
 
If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you? Could you celebrate Earth Day everyday?

Green – wow – sure is a popular topic , have you noticed that  “everyone”  is all of a sudden, profiting, touting or advocating their almighty green-ness? I hope I don’t sound pompous – I certainly am glad that the wave is catching on.

Earth Day is not necessarily the time to buy green. In my opinion, earth day is the time to see how your doing in that green thing. Reflecting greenly.

“Our feverish planet badly needs a cure. Climate Change is caused by lots of things, and it will take a lot of people to fix it. There’s a role for big thinkers, power players, those with deep pockets —-and the rest of us.” Time Magazine’s 2007 global warming issue.

I feel like I am part of the “rest of us” category. I follow my basic reduce-reuse-recycle etiquette. I make conscientious choices all the time. I use cloth rags and wash them instead of using paper towels, I use cloth napkins every single day, I never did read the Sunday paper, so why get it only to add more to recycling? I have an almost virtual, paperless office. I reduced my file cabinets by 50%! I walk instead of drive. I reuse my paper grocery bags. I wash full loads of laundry in cold water. I turn off my lights. I do many of the things that are being touted in all the press right now as the things to do this month, our Earth Day Month. I do these things everyday and have done them for many years. I believe strongly in these choices.

How about you? What category are you?

One particular pioneer of a man spoke to my sense of personal and earthly sensibilities and said “one household at a time – we can make a difference!” He created the green power I use in my home today to clean. Discovering alternative cleaning products that actually worked was like discovering a non-toxic gold mine!!

He invented the most remarkable and official Earth Day product ever; a highly concentrated, non-toxic, all plant based, extremely effective all purpose 1001 use cleaning product.  He did this before the word biodegradable was even in the dictionary!

He did this in 1960, for gosh sakes! Why would he do such a thing? Why in the era of spam, frozen dinners and velveeta cheese was he looking to the earth and nature? I believe he did it simply because he had vision, understood the pending issues and I mostly I believe he created it because he cared.

The company  recently completely reformulated the already perfect all purpose cleaner. I thought why mess with something so great? Yet he said, “Science never ever stands still”.

The new formulation is even better! Better then it already was !!! I could hardly imagine it.

Here is a little more about what this company believes:

Safe Clean
We believe home should be the safest place in the whole world.

Powerful Clean
We believe you shouldn’t have to sacrifice powerful convictions for powerful cleaners and vice versa.

Green Clean
We believe cleaning house shouldn’t involve dirtying the earth.

Smart Clean
We believe in saving you money, while we go about saving the earth.

So how about we get that “green” clean feeling together ?

photograph from montanaraven from flickr — mother earth thanks you

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean

If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you? Could you celebrate Earth Day everyday?

I remember once I was cleaning the bathtub using an ordinary scouring powder, somehow I got some in my nose and about lost my mind with how much it burned, I thought to myself how much damage did I just do to myself?

I have mentioned before that when I decided to go green, one of the things that frustrated me was the fact that the natural methods; the lemon, vinegar, baking soda approach required alot of muscle power to get things clean. I felt I had to suffer to be green. Not to mention my house smelled a lot like a salad!  I thought gosh there has to be a more efficient non-smelly way to clean green

Got something really tough to scour off ?? Try a cleaning paste that smells a little like something between bubble gum and cherry Kool-Aid. Gentle in that it won’t scratch, but mighty in that it works really well!

Every single person I know who I have shared this product with is equally astounded by it.  You need a very small amount to get the job done. Pick your very toughest stain and let this green alternative scouring paste take it on!!


blueberry brilliance flickr image credit

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean

How do you celebrate Earth Day?
If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you?

In the days of yore when I used chemical bathroom cleaners, typical soaps and shampoo’s from the grocery store, I constantly battled with ring around the bathtub, slimy tile walls and a discusting shower curtain.  While I felt it was a never ending battle, I also struggled with how ill I felt after I cleaned because of noxious fumes from typical cleaning products, and how itchy I always felt by using pertroleum derived skin care. I seriously itched a good portion of my life.

I marvel that three non-toxic, biodegradable products changed that horrific experience so simply – A germicide, an all purpose cleaning product and a scouring paste. 

The most remarkable detail of using this powerful green trio is that I could spray, scour, sanitize and mix all of these things together, without fear of a chemical melt down.  We all know that combining bleach and ammonia and other regular cleaning products is very very dangerous.

Mixing bleach and ammonia releases a gas so deadly it was once used as a chemical warfare agent. It can overwhelm a victim in less than a minute.

Yikes!!

After I was introduced to green cleaning products I was then introduced to a non-soap bar, for everyday bathing.  A positively delicious oatmeal, vitamin e, wheat germ oil product that was such a shift from the squeaky clean Ivory soap I grew up with, or the Irish spring soap my husband seemed to enjoy ( gosh I hated the smell of that stuff) I could hardly believe the difference this product made in my life.  My new non-soap bar was lovely smelling, ph balanced, and non-stripping to the skin. It actually protects the skins acid mantle versus destroying it. I had horrific dry skin from using every day skin care products that were harsh, not ph balanced and derived from tallow ( animal fat ) and lye ( the same thing that oven cleaners are made up of ). I have introduced hundreds of people to this non-soap bar and they love it as much as I.

Use non-soap products – bar, body wash, moisturizers, shampoo’s and conditioners derived from plants and guess what? No more soap scum. Not to mention no more dry skin.

vintage claw tub and mirror flickr image credit

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author 
Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean
 
How do you celebrate Earth Day?
If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you? 

Thank you to Cynthia Latham VP of research and development, for this very compelling and wonderfully sourced data.

Ms. Latham was responsible for helping our company become the first Climate Neutral Certified Company in 2000 to offset 100% of C02 production.

Since 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment. Only a fraction of these have been tested for human toxicity. We are, by default, conducting a massive clinical toxicology trial, and our children and their children are the experimental animals.

[Source: Herbert L. Needleman, M.D., Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., Raising Children Toxic Free]

150 chemicals found in the home are connected to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological disorders.

[Source: Consumer Protection Agency (CPA)]

3 groups of people are primarily affected by indoor chemical concentrations because they spend more time indoors and their immune systems are weaker. The 3 groups are: Infants and toddlers, Chronically ill, Elderly

[Source: 1988 EPA, 5-year study]

Liquid dish soap is the leading cause of poisonings in the home for children under the age of six (over 2.1 million accidental poisonings per year). Most brands of liquid dish soap contain Formaldehyde and ammonia.

Of the chemicals found in personal care products: 884 are toxic, 146 cause tumors, 218 cause reproductive complications, 778 cause acute toxicity, 314 cause biological mutations, 376 cause skin and eye irritations

[Source: United States House of Representatives Report, 1989]

Out of 2,435 pesticide poisonings in a one-year period, over 40% were due to exposure to disinfectants and similar cleaning products in the home.

[Source: State of California Study]

Most laundry detergent contains a form of NTA. NTA is a substance we may reasonably anticipate to be a carcinogen.

[Source: The Merck Index]

Household Chlorine bleaches which claim to disinfect are classified as pesticides under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. Inadvertently mixing bleach with other cleaners that contain ammonia produces a toxic chloramines gas. These toxic gases can cause coughing, loss of voice, a feeling of burning or suffocation, and even death.

[Source: Guide to Hazardous Products Around the Home, Household Hazardous Waste Project, 1989]

Women who work in the home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who work outside of the home.

[Source: 17- year EPA study]

As more toxic chemicals have been introduced to our everyday environment in greater amounts over the last 20 to 30 years, the level of toxins stored in dipose tissues (fat cells) of our bodies have risen. Bioaccumulation studies have shown that some toxins store in our bodies for life. Greater and greater amounts are being stored at younger ages. One study showed that in the fat of 100% of the people tested was 1,4-Dichlorobenzene, a chemical found in most household deodorizers and room fresheners. Some products release contaminants into the air right away, others do so gradually over a period of time. Some stay in the air up to a year. These contaminants, found in many household and personal care products can cause dizziness, nausea, allergic reactions, eye/skin/respiratory tract irritations and some cause cancer.

[American Lung Association]

Asthma was once a very rare disease. Now the condition is extremely common, the asthma rate has tripled in the last 20 years with nearly 30 million Americans currently afflicted.

[Source: Consumer Federation of America, 1997]

In one decade, there has been a 42% increase in asthma (29% for men, 82% for women). The higher rate for women is believed to be due to women’s longer exposure times to household chemicals.

[Source: Center for Disease Control]

Childhood asthma has increased by more than 40% since 1980.

[Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, June 1997; 105 (6)]

Asthma death in children and young people increased by a dramatic 118% between 1980 and 1993.

[Source: Environmental Health Threats to Children, Environmental Protection Agency 175-F-96-001, September 1996]

The average child visits the doctor 23 times in the 1st 4 years of life, with the most common complaint being respiratory ailment.

[Source: National Center for Health Statistics, 1997]

Developing cells in children’s bodies are more susceptible to damage than adult cells that have completed development, especially for the central nervous system. During the development of a child, from conception through adolescence, there are particular windows of vulnerability to environmental hazards. Most disturbing until a child is approximately 13 months of age, they are virtually no ability to fight the biological and neurological effects of toxic chemicals.

[Source: Herbert L. Needleman, M.D., Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., Raising Children Toxic Free]

Today, children have chemical exposures from birth that their parents didn’t have until they were adults. Because children are exposed to toxins at an earlier age than adults, they have more time to develop environmentally triggered diseases, with long latency periods, such as cancer.

[Source: Environmental Policy and Children's Health, Future of Children, Summer/Fall 1995; 5(2): 34-52]

Formaldehyde is a highly toxic substance. It is a known cancer-causing agent. It damages the neurological connectors in the body. It is an irritant to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs and may cause: skin reactions, ear infections, headaches , depression, asthma, joint pain, dizziness, mental confusion, nausea, disorientation , phlebitis , fatigue, Vomiting, sleep disturbances, laryngitis

One in five people are sensitive to formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is commonly found in: drugs, mouthwash, hairspray, cosmetics, cleaning products , perfumes , waxes, hair setting lotions, shampoo, air fresheners, fungicides, fingernail polish, floor polishes, dry cleaning solvents, toothpaste, laundry spray starch, Anti-perspirants, just to name a few…

Due to the increase in toxic buildup in our bodies, including the toxic buildup of formaldehyde, dead bodies are not decomposing as fast as they used to. Bodies now start to decompose within 7 to 10 days after death. During the Vietnam War, Vietnamese bodies started to decompose within 24 to 48 hours. However, Americans didn’t start to decompose for 4 to 5 days. Twice as much formaldehyde was needed to embalm a person 20 years ago compared to today.

How many of these names would you have recognized as formaldehyde? Formalin, Methanal, Methyl Aldehyde, Methylene Oxide, Oxymethylene, Bfv*, Fannoform*, Formol*, Fyde*, Karsan*, Methaldehyde, Formalith*, Methylene Glycol, Ivalon*, Oxomethane, Formalin 40, Formalin, Formic Aldehyde, Hoch, Paraform, Lysoform*, Morbocid, Trioxane, Polyoxmethylene, * denotes trade name

Warning labels on containers refer only to toxic hazards from ingestion; however, only 10% of health problems from chemicals are caused by ingestion.  90% are caused by the inhalation of vapors and absorption of particles.

Do you still want to use products in your home that contain formaldehyde?

Phenol is an extremely caustic chemical that burns the skin. Absorption of phenol through the lungs or skin can cause: central nervous system damage, pneumonia, respiratory tract infection, heart-rate irregularities, skin irritation, kidney and liver damage, numbness, vomiting, and can be fatal

Phenol is a very common chemical and is regularly found in the following common products: air fresheners, aftershave, bronchial mists, chloroseptic throat spray, deodorants, feminine powders & sprays, hair spray, decongestants, mouthwash, aspirin, solvents, acne medications, antiseptics, calamine lotions, cleaning products, detergents, furniture polish, hair setting lotions, lice shampoo, polishes, cold capsules, all-purpose cleaners, aerosol disinfectants, anti-itching lotions , carnex , cosmetics, disinfectant cleaners, hand lotions, lip balms, sunscreen and lotions, insecticides, cough syrups, just to name a few…

Do you still want to use products in your home that contain Phenol ?

Alternative Cleaning Products

Plant Based Personal Care Products

Plant Based Skin Care

Mineral Based Cosmetics

image sourced from flickr.com – thanks ever so much

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean

If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you? Could you celebrate Earth Day everyday?