Safe & effective sunscreen

I bet there were a lot of sunburns as a result of our beautiful Victoria Day weekend. Sometimes it takes a few sunny days to get back into the habit of wearing sunscreen and safely enjoying summer-like weather.  We had to dig around for last summer’s sunscreen leftovers and rummage in the basement for sun hats. In the end we had what we needed to safely enjoy the sunny weekend but this week we were back to square one researching sunscreen for this summer.

Fortunately Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released its latest sunscreen report, making it easy to search out the safest and most effective sunscreens available this year.  

But before you run to the drugstore (or download EWG’s sunscreen app) remember there’s more to sun safety than just wearing sunscreen. The first line of defense is to cover up with wide-brimmed hats and light coloured clothing. Finding shade and staying out of the noontime sun are important too but easier said than done on sunny weekends during our too-short summers.

Sunscreen should be your last line of defense for a couple of reasons. First, it appears that there is no consensus on whether or not sunscreen actually reduces incidences of melanoma, and many sunscreens are much less effective than they claim. That’s no reason to stop using it though, just a reminder that you need to do your research before stocking up for the summer.

Based on its research EWG found that a lot of sunscreens on the shelf exaggerate claims of UV protection and many are unstable, breaking down in sunlight.

As well, there is no evidence that sunscreens with SPF ratings higher than 50 are any more effective but they do carry a higher concentration of chemicals that soak into your skin. The US FDA is considering prohibiting the sale of these products because those who use them tend to stay in the sun longer. They may not burn but their skin is damaged in other ways.

Some sunscreen ingredients react to the sun’s rays, making them more toxic. Retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A, can actually promote the development of tumours.  

Based on EWG’s research, mineral-based sunscreens offer the safest and best protection. They are stable in sunlight and don’t penetrate the skin. If you can’t find mineral-based sunscreen or prefer a formula that’s easier to apply EWG recommends choosing sunscreens with avobenzone (3 percent for the best UVA protection) and without the hormone disrupter oxybenzone. Confusing but just remember “oxy” is bad.  

A few more tips:

Avoid spray on or powder sunscreens since they coat your lungs and your skin, and don’t buy sunscreen with added insect repellant. This year we’ll be buying Green Beaver mineral-based sunscreen and Coppertone Kids Pure and Simple (if I can find it). Coppertone Sensitive Skin sunscreens get a good rating as well, but the other Coppertone products don’t.

View the full report at www.ewg.org.

Are e-readers eco-friendly?

I got an e-reader for Christmas a couple of years ago and I love it.  It doesn’t replace the feel of a great book, but for everyday reads that you don’t care to keep on your shelf I think they’re the ideal solution. Or at least I thought they were a great, green innovation. It turns out though that they’re not as green as they seem.

If you’re only comparing an e-book to a printed book the e-book comes out on top, environmentally speaking. But to do a true comparison you need to factor in the e-reader too. And by e-reader that can mean a Kindle, Kobo, iPad or tablet.

I found a very thorough analysis comparing e-books and printed books written by Nick Moran, an editor with the literature review site The Millions. After reading it I came to the conclusion that the eco-footprint of an e-reader has as much to do with its owner as it does the device itself. Here’s why…

The carbon footprint of a book includes production of the paper, printing, and shipping to stores. For an e-book you need to include the energy consumed while you read the book, but you also need to consider all that goes into creating the e-reader required to read the e-book in the first place. When all of this is factored in, the average carbon footprint of an e-book is 200 to 250 times that of a printed book.

The ratio gets even worse when there are multiple e-readers in a household, upwards of 650 times worse when compared to the carbon footprint on a home library where you can have more than one family member reading the same copy of a book.

If you hang onto your e-reader for five years or longer it all evens out. But the problem is people tend to upgrade devices every two years.

So in the end, the answer is really that an e-reader can be very eco-friendly. It’s all in how you use it. Do you plan to keep it for a good long time? Do you plan to give it away to someone who will continue to use it if you’re dying to upgrade, or will it get stuffed in a drawer? Are you a voracious reader? If you read a tonne of books (way above the average 6.5 books a year) then the equation is different for you anyway. Do you share an e-reader in your house? Have you switched any subscriptions (magazines, newspapers) to electronic versions? How you answer these questions will determine if your e-reader is a better environmental choice.

If you’re a reader, by far the greenest route is your public library. Remember to check there first for the next book you’d like to read. You can also borrow e-books from the public library.

Share your books among family and friends, borrow books when possible and be sure to cart any unloved books off to one of the local second hand book stores for someone else to enjoy.

Green grilling: how to be safe and eco-friendly around the barbeque

Marinating your meat and adding herbs & spices are two of the simple ways your can make grilling safer.

My dad enjoyed his role as king of the barbeque. Not that he had any choice. No one else in the family was prepared to go near the gas grill since he always had some part of it jury rigged. In those days I thought that grilling was dangerous because of dad’s booby traps but come to find out there are things more worrisome than flames shooting out of the wrong places.  

It is now well understood that carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) form when meat is cooked at high temperatures and research has connected these compounds with higher rates of colorectal, stomach, lung, pancreatic, breast, and prostate cancers. It isn’t just the charred, crispy bits that are unhealthy. These chemicals form in the fatty juices all over the meat. Hamburgers appear to be the worst. 

As well, the fatty smoke from flare ups coats your meat with another family of carcinogens called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).  

Even though this is more than a bit alarming, there is no reason to give up on grilling. Knowing what you can do to limit the formation of these compounds will make your grilling safer. 

Research has shown that certain herbs and spices can reduce HCAs. In particular, rosemary, tumeric and ginger scored the highest in their ability to somehow inhibit the formation of these compounds. (A 2009 report in the Journal of Food Science found that rosemary extract reduced HCAs by 60 to nearly 80 percent.) 

Marinating your meat can reduce the amount of HCAs that form by as much as 99 per cent according to The American Institute for Cancer Research. Adding rosemary, ginger root or tumeric to the marinade is even better. Basting your meat with barbecue sauce helps too. 

Don’t char your meat, and don’t eat the charred bits, no matter how tempting. 

Cook your meat or fish on foil, on a soaked cedar plank or on indirect heat wrapped in parchment paper. 

Pre-cook your meat so it doesn’t have to spend as long over a flame. Or choose small cuts of meat that cook quickly. 

Cook over indirect heat. (One of my all-time favourite recipes is for chicken cooked on indirect heat. It takes a while but is moist and delicious.) 

Trim visible fat off your meat to avoid flare ups (choosing leaner cuts of meat will help) and keep a spray bottle of water handy to douse any unwanted flames.  

Clean your grill racks well. Soak them overnight in hot water and baking soda. If you’re rushed for time, scrub them on the lawn with a paste made out of baking soda and water. Then hose them down. 

Keep the bottom of your grill clean too (to minimize smoking fat). 

If you like to grill with charcoal choose natural charcoal or wood briquettes. Conventional charcoal is made with coal dust, sodium nitrate, sawdust or petroleum products. And the easy-light stuff is treated with lighter fluid. You don’t want those toxic bi-products coating your food. 

Green living guides - a crash course in healthy living



This guide to safer cosmetics is one of the handy tools available to help us buy less toxic food and products.

I spend a lot of time doing green living research. I follow blogs and environmental leaders, I subscribe to healthy living newsletters and eco twitter feeds. You could say I’m up to my eyeballs in all things green.

But I still get to the grocery store and draw half a blank in the produce section, trying to remember what fruits and vegetables are on what list: the dirty dozen or the clean 15. In the personal care section I find ingredient labels confusing, mixing up the siloxanes with the glycinates (who wouldn’t?) Cleaning products are no easier, especially with all of those deceptive (unregulated) labels.

So even when you’re fairly informed, it’s tough to make the right choices. I end up with grocery store paralysis and come home empty handed or buy the wrong thing and have to return it. No wonder I’m so content using vinegar and baking soda for cleaning. The labels are easy to decipher. 

Making safe and healthy choices is hard work, but it’s getting easier thanks to a spate of printable wallet guides and mobile apps that decode labels and provide at-a-glance lists of do’s and don’ts. All the basics at your fingertips.

Here are some of my favourites:

The dirty dozen/clean15 wallet guide and mobile app. Developed by Environmental Working Group, these lists include the produce with the highest pesticide residue (that you should buy organic) and produce with the lowest (it’s okay to buy conventionally grown.) The guide keeps me sane in the produce section and helps me manage my grocery budget.

The dirty dozen of cosmetics, the David Suzuki Foundation’s shopper’s guide to personal care products. This is a great help, especially when I’m choosing products touted as “natural”, which can often be loaded with toxins along with the plant-based good stuff.  Environmental Defense has a similar guide.

The Shopper’s Guideto Cleaners is a new guide from the David Suzuki Foundation. It lists some of the most toxic (and surprisingly common) ingredients in household cleaners, and provides tips like choose fragrance-free and avoid cleaners that don’t list ingredients on the package.

Seafood Watch is a guide to choosing ocean-friendly seafood. It categorizes fish choices so you can avoid (or limit) consuming those that are fished or farmed in environmentally damaging ways. It also lists the fish that you should be wary of due to concerns about mercury or other contaminants.  Seachoice offers a similar guide.

Reading these guides is like a crash course in healthy living. It might be stressful at first (you’ll see there’s a lot to avoid) but keeping these guides handy while you shop will make it easier to make healthy choices. And there is a better chance you won’t be duped by false claims and misleading labels.

Take up a new habit that's good for you and the planet.

Earth Day is coming up on April 22, the annual celebration of all that’s great about the earth and our chance to do something better for the environment. Earth Day is a great concept, but it’s only one day. If you really want to make a difference in your life and the life of the planet, consider it a time to jumpstart a pledge to live better, for more than a day. 

I say “live better” because the state of the environment and our personal health and wellbeing are so intertwined. When I asked my nine-year old daughter Amelia what Earth Day meant to her she said, among other things, that you should drive less so you don’t pollute. And that driving less is better for you too because you get more exercise. She gets the earth health-personal health connection.

Dwelling on that connection is a catalyst for change because even people who don’t give much thought to environmental issues usually care about their health and the health of their family. 

Whatever inspires you to live better is a good thing.

But where to start? The Earth Day Canada team suggests you take your pick among four basic categories: Eat, Drink, Care, Move.

Eat: Eat more plant-based meals. Eating too much meat isn’t good for us or the planet, for many reasons. Factory farms, the source of most meat, pollute a lot. Cramped quarters in factory farms means diseases are rampant so live stock is fed a steady diet of antibiotics, contributing to drug resistance in people too. (50% of antibiotics used in Canada are fed to livestock.) And the mass production of meat today accounts for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. If Americans ate just 10% less meat there would be enough grain left over to feed 60 million people.

Drink: Drink tap water instead of bottled. Most bottled water is simply tap water anyway and it takes a surprising three litres of water to make one litre of bottled water. What’s more, there is a water footprint behind everything we consume. A bottle of beer requires 76 litres of water to make, a glass of wine 113 litres, a cup of coffee 136 litres. So consume less and don’t waste.

Care: Phase out (or throw out) your personal care products that are loaded with toxins. The cosmetics industry isn’t required to prove an ingredient is safe before it’s used in a consumer product. So unless your products state that they’re free of parabens, pthlates, and at least 10 other known toxins, I would toss them and switch to safer products. Check my blog for more information.

Move: Get more active. Canadians are driving more each year, increasing our per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Park the car more, car pool, take public transportation, ride your bike and walk.

Developing new or better habits can be a challenge so start with something easy, or choose something that’s especially important to you, so you’ll stick with it. Then choose your next challenge…

The environmental cost of fast fashion

The Wizard of Felt up-cycles woolen sweaters into shrugs, re-sweaters, scarves, skirts, throws and more.

Do you need a thneed?
In his book The Lorax Dr. Seuss may have been the first to write about the social cost of what’s known as “fast fashion”, clothing that is produced quickly, cheaply and consumed like fast food by shoppers keen to wear the latest styles, who then toss them aside when the next trend comes along. Cheap, stylish clothes are great for consumers but not so great for the environment or for the people stuck in the factories producing them.

According to a study out of Cambridge University (UK), consumers bought one third more clothes in 2006 compared to 2002. And the rate of clothing consumption continues to rise as companies perfect their supply chain management, getting more clothes from design to stores faster than ever before, and more cheaply. As a result, even though we’re buying more overall, we’re spending a lot less of our disposable income on clothing and therein lies the problem -- shoppers can’t resist a good deal.

This is how our “good deal” stacks up: Mass produced clothing comes from sweatshop-like factories with questionable employee practices and a lack of environmental oversight. It’s then shipped halfway across the world, bought, worn for a bit and often tossed.

According to the U.K.-based Ethical Fashion Forum, consumers in Britain send more than 60 pounds of clothing and textiles to the landfill each year. What happened to mending clothes to extend their life and donating used clothes to charity?

In her book “To Die For. Is fashion wearing out the world?” author Lucy Siegle asks the same question and chronicles how we moved from buying a few pieces of high quality clothing each season to practically swapping out entire wardrobes from year to year.  Seigle investigated the ethical and human rights issues associated with off-shore clothing factories, and draws attention to the environmental impact of creating textiles. (Among the stats: about twenty-five percent of all pesticides used globally are used to grow conventional cotton, and it takes 2,700 litres of water to produce enough cotton fabric to make a t-shirt.)

It might be easy to blame the major corporations for creating fast fashion and the disposable culture of value-end clothing, but consumers are just as culpable since we’re doing the buying.

The power to change it all rests in our wallets.  If you like clothes but want to lessen the environmental and ethical impact of your fashion habit visit: www.slowfashioned.org and take the pledge to practice conscious consumption. Here’s their guideline for change:

Learn more about where your clothing comes from.

Buy quality rather than quantity.

Support handmade, local, sustainable or second-hand clothing.

Take good care of your clothing so it lasts longer.

And when clothing is no longer used, donate it to charity. The Canadian Diabetes Association operates the Clothesline, a service where they pick up used clothing and housewares. You can also drop it off at Value Village. Romero House and The Salvation Army also accept used clothing donations.

Greening your life one step at a time



The Seventh Generation blog has a great approach to helping consumers live greener, healthier lives. In a recent blog post they have categorized green living tips by effort required, making it easy for people to pace themselves if they're feeling overwhelmed. "Light Green" initiatives are the easiest, a good place to start. The tips progress to "Medium Green" then along to "Dark Green" for the most involved or impactful.

While what initiative goes with what shade of green is debatable, recognizing that not all green living efforts are created equal and that we should all set the dark green list as our ultimate goal make this approach practical and useful.

Plastic and food - safe handling tips

There are many alternatives to plastic food storage containers.

The other day I went through the cupboards and got rid of almost every plastic food storage container we owned. Even though we’ve been transitioning to glass over the past couple of years somehow we kept accumulating plastic containers. And we were using them because they were there. I finally got fed up and tossed them in the recycling bag after reading another article about what plastic is doing to the environment and our health.

The article that sent me over the edge was from the 5 Gyres Institute, an organization that studies plastic pollution in the oceans. According to the Institute, discarded plastics that make their way into the oceans have been accumulating in “islands” of plastic that are hundreds of miles across. They’re like floating landfills. Aside from the obvious danger they pose to aquatic life, the Institute reminds us that plastics aren’t great for us either and contain all sorts of chemicals, some which are known human toxins and hundreds that haven’t been tested yet.

200 billion pounds of plastics are produced each year and according to Green Peace estimates, 10 per cent of it makes its way into the oceans. Only about 5% of plastics produced are recycled and about 50% ends up in landfills.

Ridding your life of plastic is a tall order. A lot of food is packaged in plastic, people still cart their groceries from the store in plastic, kid’s toys are made of plastic, household products are packaged in plastic. The stuff is everywhere. But even if you can’t banish it entirely you can reduce the amount of plastic in your life, and learn to use plastic safely.

Avoid soft vinyl products (like shower curtains and inflatable toys). They contain phthalates, a chemical softener that has been linked to lower brain function in children, among other things.

Only plastics labeled one, two and five (inside the recycling symbol) are considered food safe. Food should not be stored in unlabeled plastic containers or those stamped with the number seven (#7 plastic contains bisphenol A, a known hormone disruptor.) Not that the food-safe plastics are entirely off the hook. You still need to use them safely.

Never heat food in a plastic container or put warm or hot food in plastic. Heat intensifies the leaching of chemicals into food. By the way, “microwave safe” is an unregulated term and only implies that the plastic shouldn’t melt in the microwave. It doesn’t mean that the chemicals used to make the plastic won’t leach into your food when heated. Ditto for plastic wrap, and look for brands that are PVC-free, or avoid plastic wrap altogether.

Never put plastic in the dishwasher since heat causes the plastic to break down.

Most canned food tins are lined with number seven plastic so try to reduce the amount of canned food you eat.

And finally, swap your plastic electric kettle for a stainless steel kettle and enjoy a worry-free cup of tea.

Is radon an issue in your home?

A home radon test kit can easily be tucked out of the way.

I have been hearing about radon for years but never gave it much thought in relation to my own home. In Maine, where my brother runs a home inspection company, it’s a standard part of many home inspections, and making necessary repairs to lower radon levels can be a requirement of sale. 

Because it didn’t come up with our home inspections I assumed that radon wasn’t a worry in New Brunswick or at least not in our part of the province. But then a flyer appeared in the local newspaper, a one-page info sheet about radon that was distributed by the NB Lung Association. According to the Association, New Brunswick has some of the highest radon levels in the country and close to one in five NB homes has radon levels higher that what Health Canada considers safe.  

The NB Lung Association is in the midst of a public education campaign because radon is considered the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers (and the second leading cause of lung cancer overall). An odorless, radioactive gas formed naturally in the ground and emitted from some rock and soil, radon can build up in enclosed spaces (like homes) and long-term exposure to radon increases the risk of lung cancer to one in twenty. Among smokers, the risk increases to one in three.  

With stats like that it’s important to know if radon is an issue in your home. 

You can pick up a radon test kit at the hardware store or order one through the NB Lung Association ($35 and they mail it to your home). If you’re buying a kit at the hardware store NB Lung Association stresses that you need to buy a long-term kit (3-month test) saying that they’re more accurate. To order yours call 1-800-565-LUNG or email info@nb.lung.ca. 

Our home test kit arrived a couple of weeks ago. I was expecting a soup can-sized kit but it’s less than half the size of a hockey puck. You place it in lowest level of your house that you use regularly (where you spend four hours a day or more, but not in a kitchen) and at least a couple of feet off the floor. We don’t spend time in our basement so I put our kit in the living room, on the back of the sideboard where it won`t be disturbed. At the end of three months we’ll mail it off to a lab in Massachusetts and within two weeks will receive the results.    

The Canadian guideline for radon is 200 becquerels per cubic meter. But even low levels of radon can be harmful so it’s important to fix the source of the leaks even if your test detects a lower reading.  

Radon can seep into your home through windows, cracks in basement floors, sump pumps, unfinished floors and spaces around pipes. Radon leaks are usually very fixable. There are contractors experienced with radon mitigation who can find the source of any leaks and make the necessary repairs.

Tips to keep your indoor air healthy

Indoor air quality can be 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor air.

This time of year, indoor air pollution is likely the last thing on your mind (and may be it never crosses your mind). We have learned to be concerned about outdoor air quality without realising that it has an indoor counterpart. Since we spend about 90% of our time indoors, we’d do well to learn a bit more about it, especially during winter. With the windows shut tight and the furnace roaring, there is a greater chance that indoor air pollution can become an issue.

The air quality in your home can be two to five times worse than it is outdoors thanks to the many sources of indoor air pollution. And it isn’t just your furnace or woodstove that you need to worry about. Lack of effective ventilation, household cleaning products and personal care products, new furniture and carpets, all contribute to unhealthy conditions in your home that can cause headaches, nausea, allergies and breathing issues.

To keep your home`s air as healthy as possible, deal with the biggest sources of pollution first: carbon monoxide, cigarette smoke and radon. Ensure your furnace, wood stove and other combustion units in the home are well maintained and cleaned at least once a year. Dirty chimneys, leaky woodstoves and poorly vented gas stoves can release carbon monoxide and other chemical into your home.

Radon, a radioactive gas emitted from some rock and soil, is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. Contact the New Brunswick Lung Association to purchase a radon test kit so you`ll know if radon is an issue in your home.

Dealing with any humidity issues is another important way to keep your indoor air clean. Mould releases biological contaminants that you don’t want to deal with so ensure that your home is well ventilated (especially the bathrooms and kitchen stove) and that moisture leaks are repaired.

Products in your home that list “fragrance” as an ingredient pollute the air. That includes cleaning products, especially laundry products and room fresheners. These heavily scented products are loaded with phalates, known hormone disruptors that can cause significant health issues. The same goes for scented personal care products and artificially scented candles. Always choose unscented household and personal care products, or those scented with essential oils.

New furniture and carpets, dry-cleaned clothing, paints and varnishes all off-gas chemicals, so it’s important that you do all you can to minimize off-gassing in your home. Hang dry cleaning on the line when you first get it home, leave new furniture in the garage until the “new” smell fades. Often new kitchen cupboards and particleboard furniture off-gas formaldehyde (a known carcinogen) so look for manufacturers that use formaldehyde-free adhesives. Always choose zero VOC or low VOC paints (available in many brands).

Dust and vacuum frequently. Also, air purifiers can, ironically, be a source of indoor pollution so do your research if you`re thinking of getting one.

It`s not all bad though, house plants can do their part to keep your indoor air clean.