Important links to learn more and take action:

The Story of Cosmetics site
Safe Cosmetics Act Action (letter to House)
E-card to tell your friends about The Story of Cosmetics
Safe Cosmetics Act main info page

On June 2 and June 3 CNN is airing a two part special with Dr. Sanjay Gupta called “Toxic America“.

Wednesday night covers “Toxic Towns” and will delve into the environmental health and justice problems plaguing the community of Mossville, Louisiana—a sad example of our broken chemical safety system. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m so pleased to announce that I am now a Parent Ambassador for Healthy Child Healthy World! If you’re not already familiar with them from the many times we have linked to Healthy Child, they are a non-profit organization that works tirelessly to help parents protect children from harmful chemicals found in the environment and in the products we all use every day.

Healthy Child Healthy World exists because more than 125 million Americans, especially children, now face a historically unprecedented rise in cancer, autism, asthma, birth defects, ADD/ADHD, and learning and developmental disabilities. Credible scientific evidence increasingly points to environmental hazards and household chemicals as causing and contributing to many of these diseases.

If you haven’t already seen it, I urge you to take 3 minutes and watch Healthy Child’s short but very informative video, A Wake Up Story. It will help you and your family and also illustrate what Healthy Child Healthy World is all about!

And to show you how much we appreciate our readers and your interest in creating a safer world for children everywhere, we’re giving away a copy of their awesome book, Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home along with their DVD and pocket shopping guides.

Win It: Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter HC06 as the giveaway name and then name three of the chapters in the Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner,  Greener, Safer Home book we’re giving away . Giveaway ends  6/14/10; $17 value. Open to US residents only. Official Rules.

Please take 3 minutes to watch A Wake-Up Story. It’s a must-see for parents, parents-to-be and anyone who cares about the health and well-being of future generations.

Find it Here: Healthy Child, Healthy World

What: Food, Inc.

Features: Want to learn more about what you’re eating? Food, Inc., an award-winning documentary that takes a hard look at the nation’s food industry, is now out on DVD

Green Factor: Since its release, Food, Inc. has prompted thousands of people to re-think their eating habits, like eating more local and sustainably-grown food

Cool Factor: Check the web site for lots of cool features – watch the movie trailer, find out how to get involved, and sign a petition to support healthy food choices in schools across the country

Find It Here: Food Inc. movie

• Sperm counts worldwide have been cut in half over the past 50 years and up to 85% of sperm is abnormal.

• Testicular cancer has doubled in the past 20 years and more and more cases of genital deformities in male newborns have been documented.

• And most troubling, significantly fewer males are being born.

The Disappearing Male is a disturbing look at how the chemical revolution has begun to affect the human race.

PLEASE watch and forward the link to your friends and family and particularly, people who are trying to conceive.

Grocery stores are such an illusion. The waste in packaging, transporting products, the ingredients (and the real ingredient behind what is mysteriously listed on the label), shelf space and electricity, dated items going to the garbage (that’s mostly produce since the other stuff has a life span to practically last into our child’s adulthood), how the animals we consume are treated (you are what you eat), hormones shot into our animals and getting into our dairy and meats, genetic modifications to the DNA of the foods, the colors and additives and smells added that now seem normal to us. It’s all a strange place with food-like substances. Read the rest of this entry »

If your kids are anything like mine, they like TV. Me? Not so much. I have a couple things I watch each season and that’s about it (my sick semi-addiction to CNN notwithstanding). Since I tend to be critical of most television programming, particularly for kids, I generally only let mine watch certain things; things with some kind of educational value mostly. So yes, I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to my kids’ media consumption. Whatever.

Well, in case you didn’t know, that doesn’t leave much, but I’m always keeping my eyes open for new and interesting things that I can DVR and save for them to watch when they’re in the mood for some boob tubing. I recently became aware of Kid Guides, a show where two kids travel around to museums, zoos, aquariums and the like and share their adventures in nature and science with viewers.

I let my kids watch some clips and they really liked it (they totally dug the “kid” hosts) and I liked it, too, because it was remarkably devoid of spastic, screaming, anthropomorphic cartoon animals (or sponges) and it’s not dumbed down to the point of tedium. And? Kid Guides has received the Parents Television Council Seal of Approval and scored an Emmy Award, to boot. You can check the Kid Guides site (under ‘Show Times’) to see if it airs in your area OR you can get Kid Guides on DVD from Amazon.com

Find It Here: Kid Guides

Win It: We’re giving away 2 Kid Guides DVD’s. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter KG7 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: Name three of the four available Kid Guide DVD’s. Enter by 7/13/09. $30 value. Open to US residents. Winner will be notified by email. Contest closed. Congrats to Kathy!

A Greener Apple (NYC) is the project of  New York City mom and producer/director Pamela French. She takes her camera to a variety of locales in New York City area for man/woman-on-the-street interviews asking people what they would do to make New York greener (A Greener Apple!) It’s actually very interesting to see where people’s heads are at in terms of greener living and what sorts of things they feel would make a difference. The responses range from highly aware and educated to flip and somewhat ignorant. Fortunately, Read the rest of this entry »

Got little ones? Trying to raise them green? Then you might consider adding Sesame Street’s new DVD, Being Green to your eco-teaching arsenal. Being Green stars ultra-cute actor Paul Rudd as Mr. Earth, who teaches Elmo and Abby Cadabby how to be environmentally conscious by recycling, re-using, and conserving water and energy.  In her desire to help Elmo to be more “green,” Abby accidentally turns Elmo the color GREEN and can’t remember how to change him back!  Fun and hilarity ensue and Abby eventually turns Elmo red again and Cookie Monster, Rosita, and Telly Monster pitch in, pledging to be eco-friendly because they LOVE the earth! As a special bonus feature, Being Green also contains 16 pages of downloadable activities and story sheets to extend the learning at home. In addition, Being Green is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled cardstock and is printed with soy-based ink and uses reduced-plastic as compared to other DVD cases. Once your kids have watched it eleventeen thousand times and have the being green thing down pat, pass it on to some other kids and keep the message going. We’re going to help five lucky readers get started by giving away five copies of Sesame Street’s Going Green. See details below!

Find It Here: Being Green

Win It: We’re giving away five copies of Going Green. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter GG6 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: As Mr. Earth, what does Paul Rudd wear in Being Green? Enter by 6/6/09. $16 value. Open to residents of US. Winner will be notified by email. Contest closed. Congrats to our five winners!

It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that we, humans, have highly polluted bodies. This pollution in people is the direct result of a statute that does not require chemicals to be proven safe to get on the market, or stay on the market. Under federal law EPA does not have the authority to demand the information it needs to evaluate a chemical’s risk, and neither manufacturers nor the EPA are required to prove a chemical’s safety as a condition of use.

What’s even more shocking than the above is the sad fact that babies bodies are polluted with dangerous toxic, cancer-causing and hormone-altering chemicals before they’re even born. How does this happen? Watch the video below. What can we do? Sign this declaration and tell your elected officials that this is morally wrong and it needs to stop NOW.

I let my kids watch TV. I admit it. But I’m also very picky about what I let them watch, opting predominantly for science and nature shows. One series that we’ve enjoyed immensely is Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. The cinematography is so groundbreaking that we’ve been able to see things we would never ever witness otherwise and so indescribably amazing that it regularly gave me chills. It’s because of our love of nature that I’m especially excited about a movie from Disneynature films called Earth. It tells the story of three animal families and their journeys across the planet over the course of a year. It was directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the Emmy Award-winning creative team behind the Planet Earth series which pretty much guarantees it will be both epic and visually astounding. What’s really cool is that Disney is going to plant a tree for every person who sees the film during it’s opening week, starting on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. That’s some serious green potential and I’m really excited about it! To help kick off this awesome new film, we’ve teamed up with Disneynature films to give away an Earth reusable grocery bag, a biodegradable tumbler, and a tree seedling so you can plant your own tree! (details below)

Find It Here: Disneynature Films

Win It: We’re giving away an Earth reusable grocery bag, a biodegradable tumbler, and a tree seedling. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter DE3 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What, specifically, are the three kinds of animals featured in Earth? Enter by 4/07/09. $60 value. Contest Closed. Congrats  Sherry!