Gifts to Scrooge On

Our annual list of gifts we're better off avoiding, plus some alternatives.

1. Our all-time favorite Scrooge target, PVC toys can release lead dust and leach toxic phthalate chemicals.

2. Perfume provides women's primary exposure to phthalates, which may be linked to premature breast development in baby girls, Environmental Health Perspectives reports.

3. Candles with wire-embedded wicks can release toxic lead dust when burned, as well as provoking allergies and asthma symptoms with their added fragrance. Choose beeswax candles with all-fiber wicks instead.

4. Although fresh flowers brighten a holiday table, they're also often heavily doused with pesticides. Your local farmers' market or greenhouse may sell untreated blooms; or try the dried organic floral sampler from the Homeless Garden Project's Women's Organic Flower Enterprise. (From Harmony, 800/869-3446, www.gaiam.com) For fresh organic bouquets by mail, contact Diamond Organics (888/ORGANIC, www.diamondorganics.com) or Organic Bouquet (www.organicbouquet.com). Get organic evergreen wreaths from Maine's Darthia Farms (800/285-6234, www.acadia.net/darthia).

5. The U.S. consumes around half of the world's caviar. But poaching, pesticide runoff, and dams are decimating populations of the Caspian sturgeon, which supplies most beluga caviar. Serve puréed eggplant "caviar" instead!

6. There's about a 50% chance that packaged smoked salmon came from a fish farm that polluted coastal waters and tainted wild salmons' gene pools. That's why Orvis has stopped selling smoked farmed salmon and replaced it with wild Alaskan salmon, caught from abundant populations. (800/541-3541, www.orvis.com) Also from Send Salmon, 800/777-7658, www.salmongifts.com.

7. If you're shopping for educational books for preschoolers, be sure to reject the snack food brand books, starring Skittles, Hershey's kisses, Oreo cookies, and other junk foods, and other stealthy ways to market oversugared food to toddlers, such as Kellogg's Froot Loops Counting Fun Book.