Did you know that many personal use product such as cosmetics, shampoos, and body washes contain chemical fragrances that could be harmful to you and your family's health? Not many people do. It's also a secret that companies do not have to disclose which chemicals they are using as fragrance. They simply list fragrance-- which can mean any chemical is added to a product, even ones that have been linked to numerous health problems. Sometimes, fragrance is even added and not listed. And synthetic fragrance use in the marketplace has doubled since 1990. Here are some reasons why this is a...

Last month, the Senate Environmental and Public Works committee held a hearing about toxic chemicals . Business owners, health advocates, and citizens testified about the the lack of regulation of toxic chemicals in consumer products and how they are harming lives. This fall, Congress will decide how to regulate (or not) toxic chemicals for the first time in over 30 years. Here are 10 reasons we need strong reform of our chemicals laws NOW to protect children and families from harmful, toxic exposures that are causing many health and learning problems. 1. It is outdated. The Toxic Substances...

Did you hear about Senate committee hearing at the end of July? It was kind of a big deal. Why? For years environmental health activists, parents, bloggers, journalists, film-makers and scientists have been sounding the alarm about the over 80,000 untested chemicals found in your home, products, schools and child care centers--- and the harmful affects they have on our bodies, especially our children. We've seen exponential increases in learning difficulties, cancer, developmental delays, reproductive system problems, obesity, early puberty, and other problems. Many of these conditions have...

The bug season is here! For us up in Vermont, it is an unpleasant trifecta of mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies. Across the East coast, wet and hot weather is creating the perfect conditions for many insects to thrive. Climate change is also causing and increase in mosquitoes and the infectious diseases they carry. What to do if you are heading into the woods, or camping with your kids? 1. Consider how buggy your location is. Do some research to figure out which insects are in season and how bothersome they are. You might find that they are only problematic at dusk and dawn. In that...

(First posted at Non-Toxic Kids . Join Katy from Non-Toxic Kids, author Beth Terry, and MomsRising this Tuesday for #EcoTipTue. We'll discuss how plastic is bad for our health and the planet-- and how we all can take simple steps to reduce our usage. Beth is super funny and full of great advice!) I've written about Beth Terry here before . You might remember her blog, Fake Plastic Fish (now My Plastic Free Life) , where she started gathering and weighing her weekly plastic use. Inspired by a dramatic photo of a dead sea bird whose insides were riddled with plastic, Beth was spurred into...

I am breathing a little deeper tonight. Why? Because we finally have someone who is standing up for public health in our country-- in the face of big polluter dollars, power, and lobbyists. And he just happens to be the President of the United States. There has been silence about climate change from our nation's leaders for far. Too. Long. World scientists have been sounding the alarm about climate change for years. There is more and more research linking climate change to extreme weather, increasing air pollution, increasing rates of asthma and preventable deaths , more heavy metal pollution...

I'm thrilled to announce that I recently started working with MomsRising on the issue of reducing toxic chemicals in our world. I've been a member of MomsRising since it began, and since I took my first action with a tiny infant asleep on my lap. That activism spurred another birth--my blog, Non-Toxic Kids , where I have been writing extensively about how to keep kids safe from toxins in our food, products, air and water since 2008. I've always been a big fan of the platform of issues MomsRising represents-- maternity and paternity leave, open flexible work, toxin free families, health care...

This article originally appeared in my blog, Non-Toxic Kids . You can find more tips for safer, greener, and healthier eating in my ebook, Eat Non-Toxic: a manual for busy parents . Is there nothing kids love more than macaroni and cheese? Such lovely melted goodness, especially the homemade kind. And kids should really only eat the homemade kind. Conventional Kraft and other mainstream brands are packed with artificial food coloring, questionable cheese sources from factory farms, and other ingredients I can't pronounce, but I know can't be good. Even the FDA was considering putting warning...

1. Our kids are hurt by dirty air. We need to protect them, like we do by buckling them up in car seats. The numbers are staggering. Each day in America : *40,000 people miss school or work due to asthma. *30,000 people have an asthma attack. *5,000 people visit the emergency room due to asthma. *1,000 people are admitted to the hospital due to asthma. *11 people die from asthma. These are our neighbors, friends, families, and fellow Americans. Millions of children each day are exposed to mercury and other toxins in air pollution everyday. Mercury emissions have never been regulated, and...