Green Room to Grow In
by Mindy Pennybacker"If there's one time in their lives when people are motivated to make healthy lifestyle changes, it's when they're about to have a baby," says Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "As a pediatrician I encourage this, because fetuses and babies, whose systems are rapidly developing, are much more vulnerable to toxic substances than at any other time of life." As certain childhood cancer rates creep upward, childhood asthma incidence has doubled and learning disorders are also on the rise, parents would be wise to limit exposure to household toxins before their babies arrive. "There are many simple things you can do that will significantly reduce both health risks and your worries," says Landrigan, coauthor of Raising Healthy Children In a Toxic World: 101 Smart Solutions for Every Family.
For many parents nowadays, healthy means green. "I don't think you can separate the two," says Cara McCaffrey, a New York City mother. "Our furniture, our skin lotions, the food we eat, reducing and recycling plastics—every decision can have an impact on the air, soil, water and our health," Cara says.
Clean Air, Healthy Home
As her children Birk and Vale built with wooden blocks on a hemp area rug during this reporter's visit, Cara noted that the dark hardwood floor was polished with a no-VOC finish, free of petrochemical volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that produce the equivalent of indoor smog. She added that, with the help of green-minded decorator Renee Rizzuto, she's reupholstering her old couches and chairs. It's goodbye to the old polyurethane foam, treated with polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) fire retardants, which cause developmental harm in animals and have infiltrated American women's breast milk. The new fillings will be organic cotton batting, natural latex and naturally fire-resistant wool. Organic cotton or hemp covers will be free of water and stain repellants that can emit formaldehyde and whose manufacture releases toxic perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Both McCaffrey children graduated from a custom bassinet fitted with a new wool mattress ("I had them make one for the pram, too," Cara says) to an organic mattress in an all-hardwood crib to twin organic mattresses covered with wool pads. "An organic, untreated crib mattress is the best investment you can make," Cara says, noting that it's much more affordable than an adult mattress, and the baby spends much more time asleep in its crib than grownups do.
When Mary Tyler Johnson, M.P.H., and her husband, Jesse, hosted an environmental-health discussion in their Lower Manhattan apartment last year, "Many people in the room said their main interest was in protecting their baby," Mary recalls. She herself began eating organic foods, "especially foods that would otherwise have lots of pesticides" (like apples and strawberries) and using green cleaning products, no-VOC paints and least-toxic personal care products before she became pregnant with their first child. One good reason for taking precautions: Studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Working Group indicate that all of our bodies have absorbed toxic chemicals. Many of these, such as lead, mercury and PBDE flame retardants, can cross the placenta, exposing the fetus. "Jesse had his 'body burden' tested and they found every kind of problematic chemical. I just wanted to reduce what exposures I could," Mary says.
Mary made sure that no pesticides were sprayed in her apartment and is seeking the same for communal areas, such as the gym and children's playroom. As she was working towards her master's of public health at Columbia, Mary learned about the long-term study of 730 non-smoking mother/child pairs being conducted by Frederica Perera, Ph.D., director of Columbia University's Center for Children's Environmental Health. While pregnant, the women wore small backpacks containing monitors that measured pollutants in the air they breathed. Mothers' and babies' blood and urine were regularly tested. One of Perera's early findings was that babies with higher levels of the pesticide chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord blood, a sign of higher pre-natal exposure, were born smaller than those with lower blood levels. As preschoolers, this group were more likely to have developmental problems, including early evidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Higher prenatal exposures to combustion-related air pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), lead to adverse effects such as stunted fetal growth and cognitive development. PAHs, produced by fossil fuel burning and found in ETS, are also being linked to chromosomal aberration—a biomarker of cancers—and asthma.
"It's of concern that we're seeing these significant effects from exposures occurring in everyday life in New York City," Perera says, adding that for the Harlem-based study population, these effects, especially those of ETS, "were much worse combined with the psychosocial stress due to poverty." Perera's team works with West Harlem Environmental Action in campaigns that seek to reduce diesel buses, show residents how to eliminate asthma triggers such as dust mites and refer children with developmental problems to programs that can help. "Identification of early life risks can have tremendous benefits," Perera says.
The good news, Perera adds, is that reducing exposures produces positive results. Chlorpyrifos was banned from residential uses in 2001, and in babies born afterwards, "cord blood levels of the pesticide came way down. The harmful effects on fetal growth were no longer seen," she says.
Baby Footprints
In addition to your child's immediate health, there's the environment to consider. U.S. retail sales of products for babies, toddlers and preschoolers reached $8 billion in 2005, up from $3 billion a decade ago. And that's not counting food, clothing and diapers! In 2005, the American birth rate rose 1 percent, adding 4,140,419 babies to the mix. All those baby products add up to an outsize environmental impact.
One sure way to step more lightly on the earth—and your budget—is to recycle and reuse rather than buy new, says Deirdre Dolan, coauthor with Alexandra Zissu of The Complete Organic Pregnancy. "People generously gave us so much wonderful organic cotton stuff, but it kills me that babies outgrow their clothes that fast," says Deirdre, a Brooklyn resident who gave birth to a daughter in November. "So 99.9 percent of her wardrobe is hand-me-downs. My sister gave me her 11-year-old crib." (It meets current Consumer Product Safety Commission standards, such as crib slats spaced no more than 2 3/8 inches apart.) Deirdre's two favorites swaddling blankets are 10-year-old cotton hand-me-downs. Mary and Jesse's newborn son sleeps in a hand-me-down co-sleeper, a crib with one open side and a sleeve that fits under the parents' adjoining mattress.
When she had to buy new, Deirdre went for an organic crib mattress and sheets and a Pure Grow Wool puddle pad. Mary's newborn son napped in an organic Moses basket, and the co-sleeper is outfitted with an organic futon. (This spring, when Jesse's Q Collection debuts its baby furniture line, they'll get a crib made of Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood from well-managed forests.) For a changing table, Deirdre bought a bureau in unfinished hardwood and had her husband coat it with a no-VOC finish from ECO of New York. For a changing pad, she covered a Babies R Us plastic pad with a piece of wool and put a small terry cotton fitted sheet over it.
Bye-Bye Plastics (Almost)
The soft PVC (#3 vinyl) plastic used in many "teething" toys, as well as in flooring, shower curtains and wall coverings, contains phthalates, chemicals that evaporate into the air, bind with household dust and have been implicated in children's asthma. Phthalates are also linked to reproductive and developmental harm—and, most recently, worsening of allergic skin conditions—in animals and some humans. Polycarbonate (#7) plastic, used in clear baby bottles, contains a chemical known as bisphenol-A (BPA), which behaves like estrogen in the body and has been shown to migrate from worn or heated bottles into the liquids they contain. Look for baby bottles made of tempered glass or less toxic, opaque plastic (#4 or #5).
In practice, of course, parenting is a continual balancing act. Although she has banned most plastics from her baby's room, Deirdre would not dream of parting with her mom's gift, "A super tacky plastic mobile with a really pure Andean pan flute soundtrack." A green lifestyle, in other words, need not be perfect. So try not to worry too much. "As a grandparent, I've learned that kids have a way of turning out fine," Landrigan says.
Resources
Renee Rizzuto Design sources natural latex, wool, organic cotton & hemp furniture, rugs; www.reneerizzuto.com, 212-253-6370
ECO of New York; www.environproducts.com, 800-238-5008
Columbia University Center for Children's Environmental Health, mailman.hs.columbia.edu/ccceh/index.html
The Center for Children's Health and the Environment, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, www.childenvironment.org
Recommended Reading
(see thegreenguide.com/books)
The Complete Organic Pregnancy by Deirdre Dolan and Alexandra Zissu (HarperCollins, 2006, $14.95)
The Peaceful Nursery: Preparing a Home for Your Baby with Feng Shui by Laura Forbes Carlin and Alison Forbes (Delta, 2006, $15)
Nursery Checklist: 10 Green Necessities
1. Moses Baskets, Bassinets
Moses basket with organic cotton futon and receiving blanket ($200; www.ourgreenhouse.com); palm leaf basket from a Honduran women's co-op, with organic cotton futon and liner ($185; www.naturalnursery.com). Note: Do not use handles to lift basket with baby inside.
Co-Sleeper Sleigh Bed crib ($300, solid wood) or Original ($186, steel w/ cotton liner) converts to bassinet, includes fitted sheet (www.armsreach.com). Organic cotton co-sleeper futon ($95) and cover ($40; www.kidbean.com)
2. Cribs, Furniture
Rather than VOC-emitting pressed woods, choose solid wood from well-managed forests and natural oil/wax or low-VOC finish.
Pacific Rim Arts & Crafts crib, Pacific Coast maple with natural oil/beeswax finish ($675; www.abundantearth.com); DaVinci New Zealand-pine Kalani crib ($460) and Emily 3-drawer changing table/dresser with graceful guardrails ($351; www.daxstores.com); Diktad changing table/bureau ($169; www.ikea.com)
3. Crib Mattress
Make sure mattresses fit snugly in crib.
Organic cotton & wool ($233) or natural latex core, ($324; www.daxstores.com); organic cotton & wool innerspring ($345; www.lifekind.com)
4. Bedding
Organic cotton sheets and organic cotton or wool changing & "puddle" pads: www.heartofvermont.com, www.coyuchi.com, www.kidsstuff.com, www.greenhome.com
5. Diapers & Clothing
Organic cotton sherpa Baby Bunting ($32) and Flannel Footie ($27; www.ourgreenhouse.com); organic cotton baggy gown ($22; www.ecobaby.com); also see www.underthenile.com, www.natural-babycatalog.com
See our Diaper Product Report for organic cloth and greener disposables. Wool, cotton diaper covers/soakers at www.tinytush.com, www.babybunz.com
6. Bath
Organic terry hooded towels: plain ($24, www.potterybarnkids.com); Tadpoles towel with mitt ($20, www.target.com); Georges Collection towel with embroidered bird ($40; www.oneearthonedesign.com)
Non-PVC "tubs" in padded polyester: Leachco Safer Bather ($16; www.amazon.com); Safety 1st Cradle and Comfort ($20; www.target.com)
Shampoo, soaps, diaper creams: Choose paraben-free and unscented, or scented with organic essential oil (avoid lavender and tea tree, suspected of hormone disruption); see www.earthmamaangelbaby.com, www.druide.ca, www.terressentials.com, www.usa.weleda.com
7. Area Rugs
Undyed wool ($273, 4' x 6'; www.oneearthonedesign.com)
8. Non-Polycarbonate Baby Bottles
Glass: www.gerber.com; #5 plastic: www.evenflo.com, www.gerber.com. See Baby Bottles Product Report
9. Toys
Choose hardwood or non-PVC plastic. Color-grown cotton stuffed rhino teether ($12; www.2kh.com). See Toys Product Report
10. Fragrance-free, least-toxic laundry soaps
See Laundry Supplies Product Report
*for hand-me-downs, www.urbanbaby.com and www.craigslist.org
Nice Post...
yes... keep the world is green..
save the world, from now and forever...