Issues > March/April 2005 (#107) > 10 Easy Things You Can Do Today for Your Family's Health and the Earth

10 Easy Things You Can Do Today for Your Family's Health and the Earth

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3. Do a safer spring cleaning

Buy one green cleaning product to replace a conventional, toxic one, such as those containing caustic ammonia and chlorine bleach, which can burn your eyes and respiratory tract and, if accidentally combined, produce toxic chloramine gas. Plus, once they go down the drain, these chemicals find their way into our waterways and harm wildlife. Instead, try one of these all-purpose household cleaners:

Vermont Soapworks Organic Liquid Sunshine Nontoxic Cleaner, vermontsoap.com, Aubrey Organics Earth Aware Household Cleanser, aubrey-organics.com, Dr Bronner's Sal Suds, www.drbronner.com, Seventh Generation Natural All Purpose Cleaner, www.seventhgeneration.com

Check under your sink and in the garage, and get rid of old toxic cleaning products, paints and pesticides containing nerve-damaging chlorpyrifos (now banned for home uses). Find your community's safe waste disposal options by inputting your zip code at 1-800-CLEANUP, or www.cleanup.org.

For more info, see Household Cleaning Products Product Report, or go to our online store and purchase a handy downloadable Healthy Household Guide to Cleaning Products, plus Smart Shopper's Card, for $2.

4. Save money and fossil fuels

The average household spends 10-15 % of its annual electricity bill on lighting, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And most incandescent lightbulbs use only 10% of the energy they draw to produce light while 90% is wasted as heat. The solution: Buy an energy efficient, compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) to have at the ready next time a conventional one burns out. While they cost more at the outset (averaging $12-17), CFLs use 75% less energy, last for years and save $55.60 in electric bills per 10,000 kilowatt hours. For each incandescent you replace with a CFL, you will save 10,000 pounds of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the bulb! The EPA estimates that if just one room in every U.S. home was lit by CFLs, we'd save one trillion pounds in CO2 emissions each year.

Available at most hardware and home improvement stores. Look for EPA's Energy Star approval rating on the package. Also, check your utility bill to see if your state, like many, gives consumer rebates against the price of CFLs and other Energy Star products, such as refrigerators and washing machines. Over 500 utilities in 33 states offer green power options for consumers who want to buy energy from environmentally friendlier sources such as wind or hydroelectric power, rather than coal-fired power plants. To find out your green power options, check with your electric utility or visit www.eere.energy.gov.

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