Eco Green Tips

photo credit: avidtile

Don’t we all want the beautiful and sleek granite countertops in our kitchens? Especially with the modern trends, granite seems to be the one material most people go for while remodeling their kitchens. However, this actually may not be the safest choice. Kitchen countertops made of granite may not be as safe as previously thought.

Granite emits radon, a colorless and odorless radioactive gas, which forms naturally in soil, rock and water as a uranium decay. Furthermore, radon is a second leading cause of lung cancer in the US.

According to EPA, there really is not enough radon in granite countertops to worry and remodel your kitchen all over again. In addition, EPA states that radon could be found in any home because it develops in soil and can permeate the basements and ground floors through cracks in foundation. The danger is that this gas acts similar to lead, which means that it can emerge when you least expect it.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to check for radon levels in your house, either with a professional or do-it-yourself kit (available in most hardware stores). If the concentration of radon in your house is more than 4.0 picocuries per liter (pCi/L), you should hire a professional to reduce those levels as soon as possible. However, lower concentrations may be dangerous as well. A recent study fund that radon levels of 3.0 pCi/L caused an 11-21% increase in lung cancer.

So what can you do to protect yourself and your family? If you have granite countertops that you spent a small fortune on, you may want to check for radon levels annually. If however, you haven’t remodeled recently and perhaps are planning to sometime in the future, choose a different kind of material for the countertops (an excellent choice is Icetone, which is made from recycled glass and concrete). And investing in a radon detector is most likely the best thing you can do for yourself and your family.

photo credit: Clean Wal-Mart

Keeping your pets healthy is probably nearly as important as keeping your family healthy and with the scare of last year’s pet food recall, some of us may be looking into other ways of achieving just that. My previous article (“Keeping Your Pet Healthy”) provides a few tips on feeding your pets in a more natural way. However, if you’re still using the conventional pet food, here are some pieces of information regarding the widely available pet food that raise both nutritional and animal rights issues.

• Meat byproducts—these come from rendering plants, where animals unfit for human consumption (diseased, disabled, dying or euthanized) are sent to be slaughtered. In addition to being nutritionally dubious, this meat poses health risks as it could be contaminated with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow Disease.
• Sweeteners—such as cane molasses, corn syrup, fructose, sorbitol and sugar may cause obesity, tooth decay, hypoglycemia and allergies. Moreover, pets can become addicted to sweeteners, which would make switching to healthier food quite difficult.
• Propylene glycol—a chemical used to keep semi-moist dry food varieties from drying out has been found to cause cardiovascular depression and coma in animals. Furthermore, propylene glycol is used in antifreeze solutions and hydraulic fluids.
• Grape pomace—an antioxidant made of grape skin, pulp and seed that is added to pet food, which poses a health risk to dogs since grapes are toxic to the canine kind.
• Coloring agents—often added to pet food to hide the gray color of the low quality meats and include coal tar dyes, such as FD&C Blue 2 and Red 40, which are know human carcinogens that have also caused cancers in animals.
• Butylated hydroxysanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene—are preservatives that have shown carcinogenic properties in studies.
• Cellulose, soybean mill run and wheat mill run—fillers that come form either dry wood or byproducts of human food processing and are used by producers of inexpensive pet food brands to add volume to the food. However, they have no nutritional value to animals.

For most of us, our pets are simply members of the family and we take care of them as best as we can. However, have you ever considered that the pet food you buy may not be all that good for your beloved animal? Last year’s recall of most of the pet food available on the market was a rude awakening for a number of pet owners. Thus, it begs a question: what can I feed my dog or cat?

First and foremost, you should talk to your vet since they nutritional needs of pets vary and even though both cats and dogs are carnivores, they still need nutrients from sources other than meat.  If you’re considering a homemade diet, websites like PetDiets.com or BalanceIt.com provide recipes to choose from to accommodate your pooch or kitty.

Secondly, Certified Organic pet food is a far better choice that the conventional kinds, not only environmentally speaking. Not only is organic food produced without the petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers, it also contains meat-ingredients raised without growth hormones or antibiotics. And you wouldn’t want to feed that to your pet now, would you?

Moreover, certified organic pet food does not include genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which degrade biodiversity and its production process does not include radiation to kill bacteria, which, studies show, may cause tumors and cancer.

Lastly, don’t feed your pet table scraps since there are certain kinds of the so-called ‘people food’ that may actually hurt your pet, e.g. chocolate and avocadoes are toxic to cats and cause vomiting and diarrhea in dogs. And while switching from conventional food to organic, mix it for a few days first so your pet can get used to the taste and it will prevent them from upset stomach.

Hence, stay informed about what you put in your pet’s bowl as well as what you put on your table.

photo credit: longhorndave

Summer is in full bloom and many people spend hours outside with their families. However have you considered that some of the ever-popular toys for our kids may be toxic?

Strangely, most of the summer toys are made of chloride (PVC, or vinyl), such as pools, water wings, slides etc. Soft vinyl poses risks not only to human health (vinyl materials are made with phthalates, known hormone disruptors, and may contain lead) but the environment as well (the production process releases toxic chemicals that remain in the fatty tissue of fish and other animals). Thus, what is it that we can do to avoid these unsafe products?

Here are some tips about things you can do to minimize or limit the use of PVC products:

• Try to reduce buying toys made of unrecyclable foam; instead look for items made form recyclable materials or simply borrow from friends or family.
• Limit toxins and water waste by going to the local swimming pool instead of buying a wading or kiddy pool.
• If you have to use vinyl toys, air out any brand new items to get rid of that ‘new plastic’ smell, which indicates the presence of phthalates, and when finished keep them out of the sun since the heat dissolves the chemicals, which in turn seep into the soil.
• Common garden hoses contain lead so don’t let your kids drink water from a hose or even use it in the kiddy pools. Lead-free rubber hoses are available on the market so look for those however, remember about flushing them first before you or you kids drink from it.
• Finally, when out on vacation, be cautious about the toys your kids use, but don’t get paranoid. Summer is about fun, after all, so make sure that younger kids don’t put the plastic toys in their month, which will limit their exposure to chemicals, and enjoy the rest of the summer.

Recently, the American beef has been recalled twice due to a high number of people infected with the E. coli O157:H7, which is an exceptionally virulent strand that causes stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and a slight fever. Normally the symptoms recede in five to seven days however more severe and possibly life-threatening infections can develop, especially in children and elderly.

FDA found out that the meat companies’ production practices (the Nebraska Beef, Ltd, which supplies meat to the Kroger Company) are “insufficient to effectively control E. coli O157:H7 in their beef products…”

E. coli bacteria occur biologically in the lower intestines of the warm-blooded animals however a change in a natural diet may lead to an increased number of the E. coli. Cattle feed on grass in nature but for meat production purposes most are fed corn, which is inexpensive and promotes a quick weight gain prior to the slaughter. Corn-fed animals develop unnaturally acidic colon, which in turn is a perfect environment for the E. coli to thrive.

A study found that changing the diet back to grass even only five days before slaughter gave significant results. The levels of E. coli in the intestines of grass-fed animals were 1,000 times lower than those fed on corn.

So what does that mean to you? Well, first buying organic in this case will not get you out of danger… The best thing you can do here is to make sure you buy meat products that are certified by the American Grassfed Association. Moreover, ask questions regarding where and how the beef available in your store was raised.

Keep the meat refrigerated for only up to three day; if you planning on cooking it on a later day, freeze it.  Thaw frozen meat in the refrigerator or a microwave and make sure it’s cooked properly—160 degrees internally, according to FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service).