Detoxing your home shouldn’t be a chore. Make it a party instead!

As a busy parent, you have a lot on your mind, and the last thing you want to worry about is exposing your baby to harmful chemicals in your own home. But it’s not always easy to figure out where those toxic chemicals might be lurking. For example, did you know that:

• Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo was found to contain formaldehyde – a known cancer-causing chemical?!

• Or that Tide Free & Gentle laundry detergent contains 1,4-dioxane, also a carcinogen?!

• Or that many canned foods contain Bisphenol-A (BPA), a hormone disruptor that interferes with the body’s development – in the liners?!

And how are you supposed to figure out what the safe and practical alternatives are? And the thought of doing this all on your own?! Talk about overwhelming!

That’s why Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) launched Green Momma Parties last week! Designed for baby showers, parents’ groups, or get-togethers with friends, Green Momma Parties bring parents together to make detoxing the home fun.

WVE’s free Green Momma Party Guide is available for download online and has everything parents need to throw a great party, including steps for hosting a party, non-toxic tips and solutions for each room in the house, economical do-it-yourself recipes for safer products with how-to videos, and more.

It’s estimated that between 80,000 and 85,000 chemicals are in use in consumer products in the United States, yet only about 200 of these chemicals have been thoroughly evaluated for safety. Babies and small children are particularly vulnerable to toxic chemicals because their immune systems and organs are still developing.

WVE believes that all products, especially those for vulnerable populations like babies, should be safe and non-toxic. That’s why Green Momma Parties also include opportunities for parents to take easy actions to raise their voices together for safer products.

What’s in the Green Momma Party Guide?

The Green Momma Party Guide includes everything you need to host a great party, including:

• Room-by-room guide of hidden hazards and practical tips for avoiding them

• Do-it-yourself recipes & how-to videos for each recipe

• Non-toxic shopping guide

• Action tips for busy mommas

• A discussion guide to keep the conversation flowing

And much more!

So let’s get this party started! Sign up today to host a Green Momma Party and get the free Guide, and join together with friends and family to start creating a non-toxic home for you and your baby!

Sample recipe from the Guide

One recent study gave me serious pause. We already understand that some chemicals can change how our genes function; now researchers know that this damage can be passed from one generation to the next. I’m no scientist, but I understand enough to know that compromising the DNA of future generations is not a good idea.

It’s been known for some time that a range of pollutants can strip or add chemical tags to DNA, locking the expression of these genes on or off and changing how they function. These changes are called “epigenetic tags,” and have been linked to various health effects including early puberty, disrupted ovarian function, and death of sperm-forming cells.

Overriding the reset button

What’s news from this recent study is that some chemicals can override the genetic “reset button” that usually protects a developing fetus from such changes.

In the normal course of things, any genetic changes parents have accumulated over the course of their lifetime are erased, and the genes go back to the original programming. A fascinating evolutionary trick.

But researchers at Washington State University in Pullman found that when pregnant rats were exposed to permethrin, DEET or any of a number of industrial chemicals (including common ingredients in plastics), the mother rats’ great grand-daughters had higher risk of early puberty and malfunctioning ovaries — even though those subsequent generations had not been exposed to the chemical.

The study’s leader, Dr. Michael Skinner, told Science News that every chemical tested resulted in these transgenerational effects, suggesting that “epigenetic changes are not some unique quirk of any one chemical,” and that many pollutants likely have the potential to override the fetal reset button.

Cutting edge science

For me, these so-called “epigenetic effects” are hard to wrap my mind around. So I’m very much looking forward to a conference on the topic coming up later this month, sponsored by our partners at the Children’s Environmental Health Network.

CEHN is pulling together an impressive cadre of researchers working to understand exactly how pollutants are compromising our DNA, how the damage gets passed along, and what it means for the health of future generations.

The Contribution of Epigenetics in Pediatric Environmental Health will be held here in San Francisco, May 30 – Jun 1. I’ll be listening in, along with my PAN colleague (and fellow mom) Dr. Medha Chandra. We believe that the more we understand about how we are compromising the DNA of future generations with today’s policies, the better case we can make that real change is needed, and soon. Hope to see you there.

This article was also posted on GroundTruth.

This week’s observance of National Women’s Health Week, with its theme of “This Is Your Time,” underscores the need for every woman to stay vigilant, through regular health screenings, good nutrition and exercise, about maintaining her own health. I applaud the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for raising awareness this week that individual women need to make their own health a priority.

But I would like to broaden the conversation. So many of the threats to women’s health stem not just from their own choices but the environment they live in, the public policies that affect them and their access to health care – all factors beyond their control. I’m referring to things like whether a woman has health insurance to pay for health screenings, breathes air that is polluted or lives in a low-income community, or even whether medications are available to meet her distinct needs.

Guiding all of the work we do at the Public Health Institute (PHI) is the awareness of the social and economic factors that contribute to everyone’s health. Many of our cutting-edge programs focus on ways to change the conditions that shape a woman’s health and better understand her health needs:

• The Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) at PHI is a landmark longitudinal study that tracks the health of 15,000 pregnant women from the SF Bay Area between the years 1959 and 1967 – such as Sue above – as well as their children. Their work includes the Three Generations Breast Cancer Study, the first womb-to-breast cancer study in the world, which also examines disparities in environmental exposures and breast cancer. CHDS is uniquely able to trace the long-term effects of environmental exposures in women and girls, examining the effects of chemicals including DDT and PCBs on fertility, pregnancy and the health of the mothers who were exposed and their children and grandchildren.
• In Kenya and Tanzania, PHI supports local organizations to increase women’s access to Misoprostol. An inexpensive and widely available drug, Misoprostol can prevent post-partum hemorrhage and unsafe abortion, the two leading causes of maternal mortality in many countries. Most important, evidence now shows that women can use this drug safely, in their communities, without going to a facility or seeing a provider.
• PHI’s Global Clean Cookstoves Project is at the forefront of developing clean energy technologies to make cooking safe, environmentally sound, and healthy for women and families. Together with scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, PHI is field-testing state-of-the-art stoves with village women in Western Kenya to replace open-fire cookstoves used by 3 billion people worldwide. By identifying stoves that reduce killer levels of exposure, PHI hopes to reduce the impact of cookstove smoke, the fifth leading cause of death in developing countries.
• The Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations (CAMI) at PHI works with researchers, biotechnology developers, policymakers, advocates and providers to promote the development and distribution of prevention products with more than one purpose. The products would prevent unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and other illnesses. For example, testing of a microbicide gel supported by CAMI has been shown to protect against acquiring both the AIDS virus and the genital herpes virus.

These programs don’t just better the conditions, health and lives of millions of women. Together, they are building stronger families and communities. Investing in women and mothers has a huge multiplier effect on the well-being and productivity of the family, the community, the nation and the world.

PHI will be hosting a Facebook chat Wednesday, May 16th at 3pm ET, noon PT, to talk about domestic and global women’s health. ‘Like’ Dialogues to Health to join the conversation.

Convenience is not always so convenient: Spray bottles of misting sunscreen may feel heaven sent on hectic summer days. Unfortunately, this convenience comes at a cost: Spray sunscreens put you at risk for inhaling sunscreen particles. To avoid inhalation, don’t apply spray sunscreen directly on your skin. Instead, spray your hands with the sunscreen and apply it as you would a traditional sunscreen lotion.

Popular powdered mineral sunscreens can also put you at risk of inhaling nano- or micro-sized zinc titanium. Luckily, if you’re a fan of mineral based sunscreen, there are more and more mineral based lotions on the market. For recommendations, or to check out your current sunscreen, visit the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Sunscreen database or the Skin Deep database.

Baby is not always best: It’s common sense that products specifically formulated for babies would be the safest options for sensitive skin. Which shows just how nonsensical, and dangerous, the cosmetics industry can be: Baby sunscreen options from many of the leading sunscreen companies appeared on EWG’s sunscreen hall of shame. Babies (and parents!) need UVB and UVA protection to adequately shelter their skin from damage and the possibility of skin cancer later in life. One of the sunscreens even contained oxybenzone, a potential hormone disruptor which is not recommended for “large surface areas of skin for extended and repeated periods of time.”

It’s a numbers game: Bigger isn’t better when it comes to SPF numbers. Though many sunscreens now boast SPF numbers in the 50s and higher, those high numbers are not guaranteed to be more effective. In fact, the FDA has said that these numbers are misleading. Stick with a UVA and UVB protecting, 30+ SPF, and make sure to reapply regularly throughout the day.

A Rachel’s Network report entitled “When Women Lead: A Decade of Women’s Environmental Voting Records in Congress,”  compares the environmental voting records of Congresswomen and Congressmen from the 107th through the 111th Congress.  The conclusion:  in both houses of Congress, whether red or blue, women are greener!

Here’s Annie’s personal account of a moving conversation:

How did a girl raised and hardened on the streets of New York City become a passionate environmentalist, geeky master gardener and full-fledged compost queen? I read Rachel Carson’s bestseller, Silent Spring.

Overnight, I became a Rachel Carson groupie and went searching for my teammates. I found them at Rachel’s Network, a nonprofit that builds productive alliances among women funders who care deeply about the environment and women’s leadership.  These impassioned leaders and agents of change have collected the latest statistics showing that women are uniquely positioned as environmental stewards and that women in policy-making positions will vote to protect the environment more than their male counterparts.

This is all swell, you may be thinking. We can stop worrying about clean water, safe food and the ubiquitous barrage of industrial and agricultural chemicals. But American women account for only 23 percent of state legislators and 17 percent of Congress, and the United States ranks 73rd in the world in gender parity in governance.

I contacted Laurie Syms, co-director of Rachel’s Network, to ask how both women and men could earn some badly needed extra-credit points from Mother Earth.

To read Laurie’s answers to Annie’s thoughtful questions, see their interview in the Huffington Post, or learn more about ways The 2012 Project is propelling women into the political pipeline here.

And as you celebrate Mother’s Day, consider the influence you could leverage by running for office yourself.  Whether you’re most moved by education issues, toxic chemicals, family-friendly workplaces, or health care for kids, there’s no more effective way to effect lasting change than by setting the policy agenda yourself.

Don’t get me wrong:  breakfast in bed is dandy.  But a seat at the decision-making table is invaluable!

The answer is, as soon as you have a baby, YOU ARE MOM ENOUGH!

TIME is sadly out of touch with what Moms really want. It’s time to ask, “Are we Mom-friendly enough?”

In my circle of “Mom” friends, we largely think that the “Mommy Wars” are over. Until, of course, some stupid news outlet uses the Mommy War to try and sell magazines. We trust that the choices that you made about parenting your children were made based on the information that you had at the time. “We do better, when we know better” is a phrase we often share with each other as we gather new information and work to improve our lives and the lives of our children.

But the question is not the only insult. The cover photo is also offensive. Not because the mother is breastfeeding an older child, but because the picture does not represent the actual relationship that this mother has with her child.  To the many mothers, physicians, and public health advocates, who have strived to bring breastfeeding back into the mainstream, it is offensive to have such an exploitative and staged photograph become emblem of what is a normal part of motherhood.

In my 12 years of motherhood, having breastfed all my children into preschool, I have never seen another mother of a toddler or preschool aged child, pull up a chair, stand like a mudflap girl and nurse her child, while gazing off into the knowing eyes of the camera. I wonder how this picture would have looked if there was a little girl standing on that chair, as opposed to a very boyish boy?  Typically, mother’s who are extended breastfeeding an older child, reserve their nursing for the needs of the child, not the needs of the photographer.

I have seen mothers, whose children have fallen down, with a bloodied knee, comfort their children with nursing. I have seen mothers of children with severe diarrhea, comfort and hydrate their children with nursing. I have seen mothers of children, who have been scared and frightened, comfort and love their children with nursing.

I am not opposed to the beautiful pictures of women nursing older children, as was represented within the article and video, but the cover photo that TIME chose was intended to inflame and misrepresent.  TIME’s use of this inauthentic representation of what extended nursing “looks like” is simply a lie.

Some families choose to breastfeed beyond infancy because of the evidence-based health and neurological benefits. Yes, I said families, because very frequently, it is the fathers that see, support and promote the nursing relationship.

But the reality is that many women never breastfeed beyond the first weeks of life, because of the many barriers that prevent them from achieving their dream. Women need accurate and timely information, not hypersexualized hyperbole.

TIME, here are the questions you should have asked:

-                Where can we get the best information to make an informed choice?

-                Are we supporting a Mom’s choice to breastfeed for 1 minute, 1 day, 100 days or 1000 days?

-                When are we going to get paid maternity & paternity leave?

-                How can we get more flexible work options?

-                How can we ensure our children are educated?

-                How can we get health care?

-                When will we expand lactation accommodation rights for all working women?

-                Are we providing Moms with real food to feed their children?

-                Are we supporting families in the workplace to parent their children?

If you are ready to opt out of the Media-Industrial Mommy War Complex, please join us here.

Here’s a hilarious Mother’s Day fantasy just for you!

Click here: http://www.momsdaycard.com/index2.php

Happy nearly Mother’s Day!!!

- Kristin, Joan, Monifa, Elisa, Ashley, Nanette, Sarah, Julie, Sarah, Anita, Ruth, Claire, Donna, Mary, and Gloria

We are powerfully, substantially, fully “Networked Moms.”

Increased Internet access, coupled with new communication technologies–like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and even emails– allows women to reach dozens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of other women at one time with a quick press of a button.  It’s an unbelievably fast moving tool that significantly accelerates communication, education, organizing, and impact.

One example of these rapidly growing networks is the fast growth of MomsRising due to networked friends telling friends: We started with just a handful of members in 2006, and we’ve grown to over a million members today.  MomsRising’s highly trafficked blog and social media networks have also grown at a fast pace. We’re delighted to share that MomsRising now has over 700 bloggers, including Congresspeople, Cabinet Secretaries, moms with amazing personal stories, policy experts, and more. There’s an amazing variety of well-written perspectives, resources, and action links in ONE place: The MomsRising blog. 

Networked moms are powerful and we’re everywhere.  And we Networked Moms are creating our own new media online– and are bringing forward topics that have too long been ignored in traditional media outlets.

So in celebration of the growing power of Networked Moms to bring forward critically important topics, for Mother’s Day we’ve gathered together the most popular recent blogs posted on MomsRising right here (Scroll down this page to check it all out).

Click here!

How to Make a Superhero Cape by Lara from HowDoesShe

Food Revolution! A Blog Carnival On School Food and Fighting Childhood Obesity, Diabetes by Monifa Bandele

Mother Takes on Monsanto, Wins Global Prize by Kristin Schafer ***Shared over 1,000 times on Facebook!

The Real View of Free Formula Samples—Open Your Eyes by Melissa Bartick, MD ***Shared over 1,000 times on Facebook!

The Story Behind My Film “Entre Nos” by Paola Mendoza

Coke Turns 125: Why I’m Not Celebrating by Mike Jacobson

130 Death Row Inmates Have Been Found Innocent Since 1973: Troy Davis’ Execution is Set for Tomorrow  by Monifa Bandele ***Shared over 1,000 times on Facebook

Wal-Mart’s Sick Sick Day Policy by Katie Bethell

It’s Not a “Mommy War,” It’s a War on Moms by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

The Execution of Troy Davis–A Mother’s Story by Martina Davis-Correia

TIME: Ask the RIGHT Questions! by Genevieve Colvin

Photo credit: Photo by Flickr user elviskennedy

Breakfast in Bed: Treating a mom in your life to breakfast in bed? You can keep your meal and fun and delicious while keeping pesky toxic chemicals at bay.

• Wash the rinds and peels: Wash all of your produce, even produce with inedible peels and rinds. It’s especially important to follow this rule if you’re slicing through the peel, since chemicals from the peel can transfer into the fruit’s flesh through your knife. If you’re zesting citrus fruits, make sure to scrub the peel and try to buy organic. You should scrub fruits and veggies for about 30 seconds each, which you can measure by singing the Happy Birthday song twice.
• Watch your water: Remember that filtered water isn’t just for drinking. Make sure you also filter your water if you’re boiling water or using water as an ingredient in a dish. If you don’t have a filter, the Green Guide recommends placing an open container of water in the fridge for a few hours, which helps filter out chlorine, and let water run for a full minute before you use it for cooking or drinking.
• Shop Smart: Take these handy tools with you on your next grocery shopping trip. Use these lists from the Environmental Working Group to choose which produce to buy organic: The Dirty Dozen are the fruits and vegetables that you should try to buy organic if you can. The Clean 15 are fruits and vegetables that have a low pesticide level even when they’re not organically grown.  What’s On My Food is a searchable database that shows you levels of pesticides in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and more. The Breast Cancer Fund has a wallet card that shows you the top 10 canned foods to avoid, including fruits and vegetables.

***Looking for crafty ideas to spruce up your special breakfast? Check out our Mother’s Day Craft Roundup, which features a whole section on Mother’s Day Brunch themed crafts.

Nontoxic DIY Beauty Gifts: Skip the stores, and pamper your the moms in your life with DIY nontoxic beauty treats.

• Sugar or salt scrubs: Combine two parts sugar or salt with one part olive oil. For a creamy scrub, replace olive oil with coconut oil. To create finer exfoliating particles, grind your sugar or salt in a coffee grinder.
• Cocoa bubble bath: Store this in a mason jar, jam jar, or any recycled glass container. Here’s the recipe from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics:
• Bath treatments: Combine two tablespoons of oats, one teaspoon of baking soda, and wintery spices like cinnamon and cloves in a square of muslin. Tie the muslin at the top, and you have a cute DIY bath ball! Add a note telling the recipient to just pop the bath ball in the tub as it fills with water. You can also try these bath bomb and bath cookie recipes from Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

How to Wrap Your Mother’s Day Gifts: 

• Tape:  The Green Guide recommends stocking up on PVC free tape or recycled gummed paper tape. And remember, when that flurry of gift opening is over and it’s time to gather up and recycle the wrapping paper, tape interrupts the recycling process. Make sure to remove all tape from leftover packaging and paper that you recycle this holiday season.
• Cards: Decorate recycled paper to create homemade Mother’s Day cards!  If you’re feeling crafty, try this Mother’s Day Drawer Sachet Card craft tutorial.
• Wrapping paper: Recycle, recycle, recycle! Newspaper, coloring book pages, old maps: All of these paper items make perfect wrapping paper. Let your kids decorate recycled paper by drawing or painting hearts, tracing hand prints, or just adding their own gorgeous scribbles.

But those simple pleasures might not be so simple or safe, thanks to the lead and other toxic chemicals that are being used in hoses and other garden products, chemicals that can find their way into the water you drink and the soil in your garden.  In a recent study by HealthyStuff.org, a project of the Ecology Center, we found high amounts of lead, phthalates and the toxic chemical BPA in the water held in new hoses after sitting outside in the sun for just a few days.

In our study, we screened 179 common garden products, including garden hoses, gloves, kneeling pads and garden tools.  We were looking for lead, cadmium, bromine (associated with brominated flame retardants); chlorine (indicating the presence of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC); phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA). Such chemicals have been linked to birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, premature births and early puberty in laboratory animals, among other serious health problems.

More than two-thirds of products tested contained chemicals of “high concern,” according to government standards. Thirty percent contained more lead than is allowed in children’s products. Water sampled from one hose contained 18 times more lead than is allowed by the federal drinking water standard. And all of the garden hoses sampled for phthalates contained four plasticizers which are currently banned in children’s products. Complete results can be found at HealthyStuff.org. Read some of the news coverage online from LA Times and NY Times.

So even if you are an organic gardener, doing everything you can to avoid pesticides and fertilizers, you still may be introducing hazardous substances into your soil by using these products.

The good news is that healthier choices are out there. As a consumer, there are lots of things you can do.

• Read the labels: Buy hoses that are labeled “drinking water safe” and “lead-free.”
• Always let your hose run for a few seconds before using, since the water that’s been sitting in the hose will have the highest levels of chemicals.
• Store your hose in the shade. The heat from the sun can increase the leaching of chemicals from the PVC into the water.
• Unless you know for sure that your hose is drinking water safe, don’t drink from it. Even low levels of lead may cause health problems.

But there’s a bigger issue here. The fact that gardening products, including water hoses, are completely unregulated and often fail to meet drinking water standards that apply to other products, that’s only a symptom of a much bigger problem. The real problem is the complete failure of our federal chemicals regulatory system.

But there’s a chance we can get that fixed. Right now, a bill under consideration by the Senate would provide for a long-overdue overhaul of the regulations regarding toxic chemicals. People need to let their senators know that fixing the toxic chemicals law is important to American families.

Please sign the petition to Congress asking them to support the Safe Chemicals Act!

If we ever want our kids to really enjoy a splash through the sprinkler, or gulp down a drink straight from the hose, we need to reform our laws to ensure products are safe before they arrive on store shelves.