I'm a big fan of cheat sheets. People seem to think of writers as people who become experts in their fields of specialty, soaked in all those interviews and explanations and facts and figures. While it's true that we do soak up a lot when we're immersed in one field or topic for any length of time, I tend to think of us more as librarians. It's our job to put our fingers on the facts our readers need. For me, if I move on write about similar material, it's all good—but if I shift to a different topic altogether, it may not be long before I can no longer rattle off those top 10 lists from memory.

Enter cheat sheets. Cheat sheets help you make savvy choices even if you can't remember all the details. It's like being a librarian: you don't have to know all the information in the world, just how and where to find it. And with cheat sheets—wallet and cell phone tips for buying eco-safe fish, pocket guides for which produce to buy organic and which is safe to buy conventional, even the best green books for kids—you're not stuck flopping about in front of store displays, desperately trying to remember which product is the healthy choice and which one is made with the nasty stuff.

If you're like me, you need something fairly global for the grocery store, something that steers you around the vicious labeling tricks. Here's some ammunition: Super Eco's list of the Top 20 food additives to avoid.

1. acesulfame-K
2. artificial colors Blue 1,2; Red 3; Green 3; Yellow 6
3. artificial flavorings
4. Aspartame
5. BHA
6. BHT
7. brominated vegetable oil (BVO)
8. high fructose corn syrup
9. hydrogenated oils and trans fats
10. monosodium glutamate (MSG)
11. Olestra
12. potassium bromate
13. propyl gallate
14. propylene glycol
15. saccharin
16. sodium nitrate and nitrite
17. sulfites
18. sulfur dioxide
19. THBQ
20. Xylitol

(Photo credit:Matthew Bland, flickr)

Nobody does blemish concealer better than the cosmetics industry. Let's face it, most consumers assume that the government is watchdogging the ingredients in our lotions and potions to a degree that we can slather up with confidence. Umm ... Think again.

However, we found a dog that will hunt. The green standard, in this case, is the Skin Deep cosmetics safety database from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 41,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. As Skin Deep itself puts it:  "Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety."

Skin Deep doesn't simply dump a list of chemicals into your lap. Two scores give you easy-to-compare benchmarks to help you judge both the absolute and relative safety of a particular product.

• The hazard score represents an amalgamation of  known and suspected hazards, collected from more than 50 definitive databases. Product hazard ratings can be higher than those of their individual ingredients, scaling upward in products that include ingredients that increase skin absorption.
• The data gap rating measures how much is not known about a particular ingredient and why. For instance, some ingredients may show low hazard scores because they have not have been studied or assessed completely, yet other ingredients may retain low hazard scores after thorough scrutiny.

Continue reading Cosmetics database scrapes blemish concealer from ingredient lists ›

(Photo credit:yenhoon, stock.xchng)

A lot of us pay attention to what we put in our bodies through our mouths—we don't eat genetically modified foods, we avoid hormone-laden dairy and meat products, and we choose organic whenever possible. But have you ever thought about what goes in your body when it comes to sex?

Yes, that's right. Sex. If you use most of the common lubricants out on the market, you're opening yourself up to more than just your partner—those joy gels contain many chemicals and other products that can be harmful to your body.

Continue reading Go chemical-free (in bed) ›

(Photo credit:wili_hybrid, flickr)

If you suspected those smelly dry cleaning fumes couldn’t possibly be healthy, you’re right. Perchloroethylene (perc) is known to cause headaches, nausea and dizziness and has been linked to miscarriage, infertility in men and nervous system disorders. But the alternatives aren't always pretty, leaving your most fashionable threads vulnerable to shrinkage and pilling.

The truth is, your favorite dry cleaning method is probably all wet. Most methods do, in fact, immerse your clothes in some type of liquid. And unfortunately for those of us who are concerned about the toxins in those liquids, marketing and regulatory terminology for garment cleaning is all wet, too.

What a cleaner is allowed to call "nontoxic" or "environmentally friendly" may be anything but. "The National Cleaners Association, a trade group, says some businesses are using the term 'organic' in a blatantly misleading way—not in the sense of a chemical-free peach, but in the chemistry-class sense of containing carbon, the element found in all organic compounds, including perc," reports The New York Times. "'Under that standard,' noted Alan Spielvogel, technical director of the cleaners’ association, 'I could clean garments with nuclear waste and I could call myself organic.'”

A couple of new methods hold promise. GreenEarth Cleaning uses liquid silicone and has been recognized by an award from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Solvair uses carbon dioxide and propylene glycol for a solution that's potentially less toxic than traditional perc cleaning. Search for wet and CO2-based cleaners (not exactly "green," but still healthier than the old perc system) at the EPA's Dry Cleaning Guide.

But wait—don’t hang it up without an eco-friendly hanger. Americans send literally billions of wire coat hangers to the landfill every year, claims Bob Kantor, CEO of HangerNetwork, the creator of reuseable and recyclable EcoHangers. EcoHangers are made from 100% recycled paper. Look for the “We Support EcoHangers” sign in your cleaner’s window.
 

(Photo credit:mezone, Flickr)

Oh, wait. Soap? I thought this was going to be about making soup. Not soap. Oops. Oh well, as long as we're here, let's talk soap, shall we? I adore homemade soaps, and they're a lot better for you than standard supermarket soaps, so why not learn to make your own? How hard can it—cough—be?

There are basically two kinds of soap you can make at home: melt-and-pour soaps and cold-pressed soaps. Melt-and-pour sounds deliciously simple, and it is—too bad it's made with glycerin (one of its derivatives is propylene glycol). So we'll avoid that for now. Cold-pressed soaps are made from oil and lye. Hold on—lye? That doesn't sound very natural... True, lye is very caustic but let's trust our forefathers and foremothers and go with it. After all, we're not rubbing together fat and ashes anymore—we're making some awesome homemade soaps from recipes designed by people who know about soap. When you work with lye, wear long sleeves, rubber gloves, and don't breathe the fumes. So be careful, but there's no need to be afraid of it.

What about the oil? Usually you'll use a combination of oils—palm, coconut, and olive oils are all common in soapmaking. I love the idea of using ingredients you can eat. And aside from some water and a few drops of essental oils, oatmeal, or flowers, that's it.

If this is sounding way more complicated than you want to get involved with, you still have options. You could order a kit: this one makes 27 bars of soap, a year's worth for a family, for $69. That's $2.50 per bar; not bad for handmade soap! Or, you could give up and order some handmade soaps made by someone else's hands.

But if you're bubbling over with soap-making enthusiasm, follow these instructions (or maybe these—photos!) to make a variety of easy-to-follow recipes. Have crafty enthusiasm but feeling daunted? Try these easy-to-make bath bombs instead. Who knew baking soda could be so much fun?

(Photo credit:SXC)

I'm still mesmerized by snow globes. I had one as a kid, some little plastic cheesy thing, but I loved it. A little world encased in plastic, and the Benign Shaking God would gently swirl the snow around and then watch it slowly settle again. Again and again. Want to relive those kid-memories by making your own semi-green DIY-fabulous snow globe? I thought you did. This is what you need:

• jars with lids: baby, olive, pimiento, etc.
• ceramic or plastic figurines (metal will rust)
• glitter
• distilled water
• glycerin*
• waterproof epoxy
• plumber's tape (optional but keeps jars from leaking)

*Glycerin is available from drugstores...it's a by-product of biodiesel production and is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in the food and beverage industry, as well as, interestingly, in the manufacture of polyurethane. And the ever-popular propylene glycol and polypropylene are derivatives of it.

Sand the insides of the lids of your jars so that they're rough and the epoxy will adhere, and then glue your figurines and trinkets to them. You can recycle bits of artificial evergreens here as well to use as tiny trees. Fill the jar almost to the top with distilled water, add a pinch of glitter and a dash of glycerin (this is a forgiving project, so play with the measurements), screw the lid on, and voila! A snowglobe. If you want to get fancy, wrap a little plumber's tape around the lip of the jar before you fill it with water to create a better seal.

Kid's plastic figurines, the kind that multiply in the dark when no one's looking, practically beg to be entombed in a watery grave like this. And you could get totally creative with the project. I'm thinking whole armies of themed snow globes standing in glittery rows, just asking to be shaken (not stirred).

Not into the DIY thing? Then get yourself an Ecosphere, a completely self-contained and sustainable miniature world populated by tiny shrimps. Shaking not recommended.

(Photo credit:Lee Jordan on Flickr)

What paint alternatives could I have chosen? Let's have a look at the paint safety spectrum, from least-safe to safest.

OIl-based paints. These are chock-full of petrochemicals and can often cause adverse symptoms from VOC inhalation. These paints are more often used in wet areas like kitchens and bathrooms as well as interior trim. It's recommended that you keep the painting area well-ventilated and take frequent fresh-air breaks while painting, although prolonged exposure to these chemicals can develop into liver, kidney and central nervous system damage and even cancer.

Acrylic or water-based paints. In these paints, water is the solvent rather than petrochemicals, so they have less odor. Some are touted as low-VOC, but take a look at the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for your paint. These paints often contain other chemicals that offgas even when classified as low-VOC, and they'll continue offgassing in your home for up to seven years. These paints used to contain formaldehyde, so if you're thinking about using old paint, you may want to reconsider.

Natural paints. These paints use water, citrus and other aromatic plant oils like pine, as solvents and the smell is quite pleasant. They dry by absorbing oxygen from the air and as a result they take longer to dry, but they aren’t out-gassing harmful toxins in the drying process. The gasses emitted don't affect us adversely in the ling run but may cause temporary symptoms such as watery eyes, headaches or skin irritation. Hmm. But! What they contain is largely stuff you can actually eat, like plant oils such as linseed, soya bean, sunflower, safflower, orange and lemon oils.. I would not consider drinking the paint in my closet, or licking my walls. Should we use the lick test as a gauge in choosing safer paint? Caveat: these paints tend to be on the pricey side.

Milk paints and lime plaster paints. Milk paints are made from milk protein, lime, clay, minerals and earth pigments. Milk and lime based paints are odourless. They are best applied to plaster, cement or stucco walls but are not so effective on wood. These paints contain no chemical preservatives or fungicides so they can be safely used on children’s furniture and toys. The disadvantage is that they fade and may peel, requiring regular re-application. Also they tend to be pricey. Moo.

Bottom line? Do your homework. Know what you're getting into. And make your choices accordingly. The paint I bought isn't the worst, but it's not the best either (it contains propylene glycol, ugh). Me, I'll be leaving my windows open for awhile. Just seven years, no biggie.

(Photo credit: SXC)