Healthy Holiday Guide

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With all of the merriment and chaos of the holiday season, who wants to think about toxins lurking in their homes, gifts, even on their dinner tables? That's why we've put together these resources to help you keep your home and family healthy this holiday season!

Gifts: How Toxic are Your Toys?

The Ecology Center and partners across the country have released the 3rd Annual Consumer Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys at www.HealthyStuff.org. Researchers at www.HealthyStuff.org have tested more than 4,000 children’s products over the past three years, and they've found some good news: lead has been steadily decreasing in toys! In fact, the number of products with lead exceeding current federal standards for lead in toys (300 ppm) decreased by 2/3 (67%) since 2007.

Unfortunately, not all of the news is good: one in three of all toys tested (32%) this holiday season still contained one or more harmful chemicals including lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury. Want to find out if your toys are home to any of these toxins? You can look up your holiday toy purchases this year on the new widget from HealthyStuff.org! You can also access the database through texting or through mobile devices, such as iPhones and Blackberrys. To learn more about how to look up toxins in your toys when you're on the go, click here! Look up toxins in handbags, pet products, accessories, and cars by visiting our Healthy Stuff site.

Parties: Environmentally Friendly Entertaining

If you’re entertaining company this holiday season, you’re probably gearing up for that big, pre-party cleaning spree. While your guests will certainly appreciate your sparkling home, there’s one thing they may appreciate more: their health and yours. Common cleaning supplies may be putting you and your family at risk for asthma, eye damage, dermatitis, and breast cancer.

This November, Womens Voices for the Earth answered the question “How clean is too clean?” with their latest report, “Disinfectant Overkill.” You can assess your cleaning supply know-how by taking their quiz “Disinfectants Myth Busters.” You can also use these three quick tips this holiday season:

Microwave Sponges: Kill bacteria by microwaving your sponges. Also, pay attention to dish towels, pot holders, and other cloth materials in your kitchen: make sure to launder them on a regular basis.

Wash Your Hands: Skip the antibacterial soap and focus on washing your hands more frequently and for longer periods of time. Spend 20 seconds on hand washing. A quick trick to measure the time is to sing “Happy Birthday” in your head.

Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies: Natural ingredients such as vinegar, borax, and essential oils can make wonderful, and effective, cleaning supplies. Create your own cleaning sprays by using these handy recipes from WVE.

Cosmetics: Give Your Make-Up Bag a Holiday Make-Over

Tis the season for a jam-packed social calendar. Between work functions, holiday parties, and New Years Eve festivities, there are plenty of opportunities to get dressed up and celebrate. Unfortunately, your go-to cosmetics might do more than help you get spruced up; they could also be putting you at risk for asthma, cancer, and reproductive health issues.

Perfume: Ever notice "fragrance" listed as an ingredient in your favorite perfume or body lotion? This generic term packs a heavy punch: synthetic fragrances are one of the top five known allergens, and can cause or trigger asthma attacks. It can also lead to immune system damage as well as allergic reactions. So think before you spritz and choose products with no added synthetic fragrance. For more information, click here.

Lipstick: According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no safe blood lead level. Yet 61% of lipsticks contain lead! Get to know your lipstick: learn more about lead in lipstick here, and look up your lipsticks by clicking here. To find out how to prevent lead exposure, check out the CDC's Lead Prevention Tips.

What You Can Do: You can't escape cosmetics, but you can improve them. Learn more about what's in your make-up bag or in your shower by looking up products in the Skin Deep Database. Pay attention to the ingredients in your personal care products the next time you shop. And if you're not finding the healthy products you need, why not make them yourself? Try out these DIY ideas and create your own lip gloss, deodorant, and face wash, as well as a variety of other cosmetics.

Meals: Keeping BPA Off the Table

With marshmallows, brown sugar, even just served plain, no matter how you serve sweet potatoes this holiday, we're sure your recipe doesn't call for toxins. But when the Pesticide Action Network recently tested sweet potatoes for their new database, What's On My Food, they found 16 pesticides, 6 of which were neurotoxins!

What's On My Food is a searchable database that links pesticide food residue data with the toxicology for each chemical. Find out if pesticides are on the menu at your holiday feast by visiting www.WhatsOnMyFood.org. You can also take the database with you; just click on the iPhone to the left for information on how to download a free iPhone application.

More Resources

The Good Guide: The Good Guide offers information on the safety of over 70,000 foods, toys, cosmetics, & household products. Check out their website for a list of the Top 20 green gifts under $20.00!

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission: Learn more about the safety of your products this year as you make your holiday purchases.

What's Next?

The holidays may only come once a year, but toxins are a year-round problem that can lead to lifelong effects on your family's health. Here are a few quick ways you can take action:

Join Our Safer Chemicals Campaign: You deserve a safer holiday and a healthier environment. Let your Member of Congress and Senators know that it's time to fix the Toxic Chemical Act!

Urge Your Senator to Protect Kids from BPA: BPA has been linked to many chronic diseases and disorders--and fetuses, babies, and children are especially vulnerable. Tell your senators that it's time to take BPA out of the products our children use every day!

Start Crawling with Seventh Generation in the Million Baby Crawl: Even babies know that something is wrong with the toxic chemicals in our homes, and they're part of a virtual, million baby march sponsored by Seventh Generation. These babies are crawling to DC to tell Congress that it's time for a change! Click here to sign up!

Give a Gift Today: With a gift of $15 or more, MomsRising will be able to continue to mobilize moms and their allies to stop everything from lead in toys to toxic chemicals in baby bottles. We depend on our supporters like you to run these important programs. Click here to find out how you can help support MomsRising this holiday season.