Monday, April 12, 2010

Healthy Home Checklist

Environmental Working Group has put together a checklist for removing from our homes environmental contaminants such as BPA to flame retardants, mercury to phthalates.

For a preview, the checklist for the kitchen looks like this:
It then has sections for Bathroom, Laundry and Cleaning Closet, and All Around the House.

Like all things, its a process to undertake to get known contaminants that pose mounting threats to our long-term health and well-being. Its daunting and can contribute to panic and fear. I have to remind myself that a little at a time is going to have to be good enough. One area at a time, one thing at a time. Little by little, I'll get to where I want to be. I remind myself that a few months ago, I didn't know about all these hidden dangers. If I could be content in my ignorance, I can be Zen in my awareness.

To learn more about why these efforts matter, visit the Environmental Working Group's website or, I recommend, Having Faith: An Ecologist Guide to Motherhood which chronicles, in a flowing narrative, the presence and effects of biocontamiiants on the most vulnerable in our worlds: our babies.

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