Green & Clean

Seventh Generation is taking action with their Million Baby Crawl to ensure that toxic chemicals found in many of our household products are better regulated.

There current Toxic Substances Control Act that should be protecting us from harmful chemicals, is outdated and not effective like it should be.  Since the 1970’s, the EPA has only required safety testing on 200 of the over 80,000 chemicals found in common household products many of us use.

The new Kid Safe Chemical can help strengthen this previous legislation and make sure that all chemicals found within products we use are safe.  This means safe for everybody, including our children and pregnant women.

Dr. Greene, notable pediatrician and author of several popular green health books for children, speaks about legislation and what we can do to keep our families safe:

Who knows the effect that many of these chemicals are doing to our families and in particular our children.  That’s why it’s great that Seventh Generation is taking action to make sure that this bill gets passed to protect our children from all of these chemicals.

So what can you do to make sure this bill gets passed?

You can join Seventh Generation in their Million Baby Crawl to make sure this bill does in fact get passed.  This doesn’t mean you have to march down to Washington DC either.  Their site provides a way you can contact your local representative so that they know the importance of passing this legislation.  There are also events being held in several major cities throughout America to get the word out.

There are also things that you can do to make sure that you are not exposing dangerous chemicals to your family just as Dr. Greene said.  We can begin using safe products in our households including products from Seventh Generation and EcoMist or try making homemade cleaners.  By simply using more natural products, especially cleaning products, we can reduce our families’ exposure harmful chemicals.

Original Content Here

You might also like:

Seven Eco Friendly Homes That Float

Green Your Refrigerator

Cleaning burnt food from your casserole or other baking dishes is a sinch with this tip.  Simply fill the dish with water and place a new or used dryer sheet in the water and let soak overnight.  When you wash, the food will melt right off.

You might Also like: The Queen Of Clean on Fabric Softener

Follow Green & Clean on Facebook and Twitter

Reusing is one of the easiest ways you can go green. “Today” shows us how we can reuse pumpkins to make your Halloween even more Eco Friendly.

Related: Top Green Halloween Tips

Queen of Clean Linda Cobb shares some fabric softener tips.

Get your green cleaning supplies here!

Brian Clark Howard, one of The Daily Green’s expert editors, gave a great interview on ABC News Now. The subject: green cleaning.

For all the details about smuggling illicit cleaners, DIY green cleaning recipes and commercial green cleaning brands you can trust, check out Brian’s interview.

Eco Friendly Modular Homes

Michelle Obama started her garden  from $200.00 worth of seeds an just 6 months later it has already produced 430 lbs of fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables.  The garden is officially being called the White House Kitchen Garden and spreads over 100square feet.  The garden is maintained by Michelle Obama, her staff, and volunteers.

The first thing to do is go through your house room by room and take inventory of what you will need to do. This way you can get all your supplies in one trip and you also won’t buy things you may not need.

Next clean your furnace (and replace the filters on your furnace) or heating stove. You may be able to do this yourself with your sweeper and air in a can. Removing the dirt make it more fuel efficient and less of a fire hazard. If you are not sure about doing it yourself call in an expert.  Just be sure to read the owner’s manual before you start and see what it recommends if you do decide to do it yourself.

Next check your windows inside and out. If the caulking is cracking or pieces are missing take a utility knife and cut off the old pieces, then clean your windows and replace it with new. I caulk around the frame also on the out side as well. If you have windows that you know are drafty, plastic them with a window kit from any store. Measure the window and cut the plastic to fit and staple to your window. Just be sure to leave a little extra plastic to tape with the packing tape on the inside or duct tape on the outside for a better seal also use drapes made of a heavier material in the winter than in the summer

Now check your outlets and base boards since they can let a lot of cold air leak in. If you can feel a draft around the outlets edge uses a little caulking to block it. If it comes directly from the outlet use a child safety plug cover to help block it. Do the same with the base boards if you feel air coming out of the top use a thin strip of the

Check your doors to see if the weather stripping is old, missing, or not flush with the door replace it. This is a piece of cake. Pull off the old scraps and scrape with a putty knife to get all the sticky off. Measure where you took off the old and cut the new to fit. Cut, peel, stick and you are done. If you have a draft coming in from the bottom of the door get a draft stopper to put in front of the door on the inside of the house

Look under your sinks. A lot of times the holes cut out for the pipes are bigger than the pipes, and they let a lot of cold air in. If you have space around the pipes and you feel a draft, get a can of spray foam insulation and spay the hole. Or you can stuff the hole with regular insulation. Do the same with the holes for your washer and dryer hoses.

Wrap your hot water tank in one of the insulation blankets they have at like LOWES or Wal-mart. Just wrap it around the tank and secure with duct tape.

We also plastic our porch that we use the most and that the wind blows the hardest on. Not only dose this cut down on the mess of snow on the porch it helps keep out the cold. All you need is a roll of plastic you can get it at Wal mart Lowes or your local hard ware store, a few strips of wood to help hold it on a hammer and nails. Cut the plastic to fit sections of your porch from the eve to the floor and nail up using the wood strips to hold it.

Other things you may need to do are go under the house check to see if the pipes need insulated to prevent water freeze ups and check the pipe holes coming into the house to see if they need insulation in them also.

Even if you only use one or two of these tips, it will help you stay snug as a bug in a rug all winter long.