So why do we pay a premium for wood (and natural fiber) toys when the plastic versions are so much cheaper? Here are five reasons our family (and lots of others) makes that choice:

1. Wood Toys Are Safer

Wood toys made in the U.S. and Europe are lead-free. Beyond local and European regulations about lead paint, a number of wood toy manufacturers have taken extra steps to ensure the safety of their creations — and their customers.  For example, many use vegetable dyes, non-toxic glues and mineral oil finishes.

2. Wood Toys Are More Sensory

From their simple lines to their subtle designs, wood toys offer children (and their parents) a total sensory experience.  They are lovely to look at, they are weighty and warm in your hand, and they have a natural woody smell.

3. Wood Toys Encourage More Creative Play

Yeah, I know, little ones love that red Elmo guy, but the attraction of battery-operated noise makers wears off quickly. Wooden toys, on the other hand, promote open-ended, imaginative play. With wooden toys, children provide the motion/action.  With battery operated toys, the play experience is more passive: Watching, not doing.

4. Wood Toys Are (Far) More Durable

Natural wooden toys are built to last.  They wear better with age and can usually withstand rough play from children of all ages.  If a wooden toy does break or chip, it can be repaired with wood glue, sand paper, or paint — unlike a plastic toy, which usually gets thrown away when a little part inevitably snaps off.

5. Wood Toys Are Green

Wood is natural, biodegradable and recyclable. Plastic, on the other hand, is made from petroleum, which as you know releases toxic chemicals into the air during manufacturing. Wood toys won’t be sitting in landfills 100 years from now.  Plastic toys will still be in that landfill in 500 years.

But what about cost?

That’s all well and good, but aren’t wood toys more expensive that plastic toys?  Yes.  As a rule, yes. Especially when you have a penchant for heirloom-quality wooden toys.  We had a wooden play kitchen made for my son’s second birthday.  All natural oak, no MDF. I paid more than three times what I would have for a “high-end” plastic kitchen.

But given their many benefits, I am convinced of their long-term value.  My grandchildren will play with that kitchen. The plastic one with Dora on it?  I doubt it. Plus, the price point of wooden toys gives me the incentive I need to keep our toy collection in check. And I definitely find that the fewer, more open ended toys we have, the more creatively and independently my children play.

Does your family love wood toys as much as we do?  What’s your rationale?

But since my stockpile has grown nice and big, I’ve started to have a change of conscience (pang of guilt).  I do still love the thrill of chasing a bargain, but I want to be certain that the products I’m bringing into my home are worth their price — even when that price is free.

So, in the spirit of being both green and frugal, I’m bringing you some link love to the best coupons, deals and shopping suggestions I’ve seen.  (I should note that the number one way to be thrifty and green is to do without or to do with less. But even Compact people agree that there are some things — food, toiletries, medicines — that you really and truly do need. This list is about where to look when you really do *need* something!)

• The Whole Foods Grocery Store has a $5 off $25 coupon out right now, good until October 22.  This is like the motherload for couponers, as you can combine this with manufacturer coupons to get some great deals.  Go to the Whole Deal to download your PDF copy of the coupon. (That link also has more suggestions for saving money at Whole Foods.)

• The Money Saving Mom (aka the couponing goddess) had a great guest post this week from Project Organic Eating, all about how to save money on organic food.  I’ve already signed up for the three newsletters she recommends and am looking forward to my cache of coupons and easy seasonal recipes.  Be sure to click over to the POE blog as well, as owner Patricia Wooster has tons of money-saving posts designed for green living families.

• Organic Mania had a recap post this week of some of her best money-saving tips for eating organic and living green. I especially appreciated her post on the cheapest places to get organic milk.  I’ve been getting the Costco hormone-free label, which at $2.67/gallon is an incredible deal.

• Five Tips on Shopping the Farmer’s Markets from Eat Drink Better. Reading this post reminded me of a conversation I had with a new friend earlier this week.  She told me that she bought three peppers for $1.00 at our a local produce market.  Three peppers. For one dollar! I was floored.  I’m definitely checking it out next week.  The market is 17 miles round-trip, but with the price of gas dipping below $2.50/gallon (can you believe that?) it’s more than worth the drive! Especially if I “squirrel away my winter booty” like Eat Drink Better’s post suggests!

• And finally, here are 11 Ways to Save Money on Organic Food from the Tree Hugging Family. The post is a bit old in blogosphere terms (it’s from May), but her is advice is still totally current.  Except, of course, for her first tip, which is not to shop at Whole Foods.  I’m gonna say that given the $5 off coupon, you can skip that advice, at least from now through October 22.

As for shopping at stores like CVS and Walgreens, there are still green deals to be found.  The other day, for example, I stopped by Walgreens and picked up six boxes of Kashi’s Autumn Harvest squares, a favorite of both my husband and my sons.  Walgreens is running a 2/$5 special, with an added bonus that if you bought $15 worth of Kashi products, you would get a $5 register reward (which is like a $5 gift certificate to use the next time you shop at Walgreens.)

Even without coupons, I got six boxes of premium organic cereal for $1.67/box. If your family loves Kashi as much as we do, you can still stock up at Walgreens until Saturday night.  And, if you haven’t already used them, be sure to sign up at the Kashi website to download $6 worth of coupons. Combine these with the Walgreens sale prices and you can pick up six boxes of organic cereal for $.67/each!

Unfortunately, the kids’ chocolate milks came in these little mini jugs that were clearly going to spill all over my car.  So, I asked for cups with lids, and straws, and poured their milk into those.  (Of course, they still managed to spill all over themselves!) I was already feeling bad about all of this waste when my five-year old said to me, “Mom, will we recycle these cups or put them into the garbage bin?”

“I think the bin, because they have that waxy coating. But I’ll look it up.”

“Well, what about the lids?” he asked me.

“Probably the bin, too.”

He sighed heavily, a sigh laden with disappointment (in me? at the wastefulness of it all?).

Then my three-year old chimed in, “But we can recycle the straws, right Mommy?”

Actually probably not, but I love your thinking, kiddo!

Pushing the whole landfill guilt aside (and the HFCS guilt aside, too… why is it in EVERYTHING?), I realized just how green we’re being by practically never eating out.  We’re significantly reducing our garbage footprint by skipping out on the fast food world. I never really appreciated how much this budget-cutting decision was green not only for our wallets, but for our planet!

Are you inadvertantly green in any areas of your life?

In Israel, we drank bottled water because even when filtered, the water had a distinctly rotten egg flavor.  We originally had a bottled water service, which though more expensive, was appealing since the company reuses their jumbo-sized plastic containers.  I figured that had to be better for the environment than all those little bottles.

But then I noticed that the big bottles were plastic #7, which is known to contain BPA (Bisphenol-A, a nasty organic compound that is both a carcinogen and an estrogen disrputor, among other things.)  The litre-and-a-half bottles were plastic #5, which is considered a “safe” plastic (although I’m starting to wonder if there is such a thing), so I switched back to the smaller bottles. And recycled a couple of dozen every week.

When we moved back to America, the water mercifully smelled and tasted a lot “cleaner” — and frequent testing does indicate that the vast majority of drinking water in the States is both clean and safe.  So we were able to ditch our bottled water service and save a pretty penny in the process.

The truth is, though, that I still had a bit of a bottled water addiction — to those little half-litre size bottles that are oh-so convenient when you are out running around.  And Costco sells them so inexpensively, that it almost seemed unfrugal NOT to buy them.

Even still, I obviously knew that spending $.50 for a bottle of water was still 50 cents more expensive than drinking tap water.  Plus, I reasoned, a bin full of tiny little drinking bottles just couldn’t be good for the environment!

So like any other bad habit, I just quit buying those teeny bottles cold turkey. I forgot to bring the kids’ sippy cups a few times, and that generally entailed a lot “I”m thiiiiirsty” whining. The kids were completely unimpressed when I tried to show them how to make a cup out of their hands and drink some water from the bathroom sink. I quickly learned to remember to refill their sippy cups before we left the house.

Even if you go and invest in a BPA-free bottle for every member of your family (I’m putting the Kleen Kanteen on my Hanukkah wish-list), breaking the bottled water habit will save your household — and the planet — a good deal of green. Which is why it is my thrifty green tip this week.

Now as is the way with good Internet karma, I happened to read a post about this very same topic on No Impact Man (now there is a serious environmentalist!) just as I was composing this Thrifty Green post.  Apparently the New American Dream is asking all Americans to take the Break the Bottled Water habit pledge, which goes:

I pledge to Break the Bottled Water Habit by Thinking Outside the Bottle and using a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. I also pledge to support the efforts of local officials to stop spending public funds on bottled water and prioritize strong public water systems over bottled water profits.

If you aren’t sure about taking the pledge, here are some facts about bottled water that may just push you over the edge:

• In 2006, Americans consumed 31.2 billion liters of bottled water. That’s an average of 167 bottles for every man, woman and child.

• Manufacturing those plastic bottles takes 900,000 tons of plastic.  It takes more petroleum to produce those bottles than it does to fuel 100,000 cars for a whole year.

• Bottling water is ironically very water-intensive.  According to the Pacific Institute, it takes three litres of water to produce just one litre of bottled water!

• 86% of water bottles are not recycled (I found this stat particularly unnerving).  It takes 700 years for a plastic bottle to even begin decomposing in a land fill.

• If just three times a week, you filled a glass of water from the tap rather than grabbing a bottle of water, you would save more than $230/year. (Run your own numbers to see how much you could save at the bottled water calculator.) Now I’m thinking $230 would buy an awful lot of organic produce!

When you decide to take the pledge, leave me a note in the comments section — and leave a link to your own blog post about taking the pledge. Come on guys…let’s take this thrifty and green campaign viral!

Sacrifice at the Pump

Does anyone remember that famous President Carter speech about sacrifice?  The one where he bundled up in a Mr. Roger’s sweater and urged Americans to accept the notion of personal sacrifice? Where he called for mandated gas rationing and lowered thermostats to help buck America’s dependence on foreign oil? You can go to PBS.org to read the full text of his speech.

As you might imagine, President Carter’s call for personal sacrifice went over like a lead balloon.  And interestingly enough, every subsequent American president has avoided the word sacrifice like the plague.

Then in last night’s Presidential debate, a viewer emailed in a question asking about sacrifice: What would each candidate ask Americans to sacrifice in order to move past this current crisis (credit, energy — take your pick)? I had to laugh as I watched both Obama and McCain dance around the word sacrifice but never actually say it. (To read a much more in-depth analysis of Carter’s sacrifice speech and the current Presidential election, check out this August 2008 article from Salon.)

As far as energy sacrifices go, my dad says that Americans think cheap gas is their birthright.  I think he might be on to something.  Personally I’m thrilled to pay “only” $4/gallon (and you should have seen my happy dance when it dipped below $3/gallon this week). In Israel, where my family lived for the last 14 years, we were paying the equivalent of $9/gallon. Despite the relatively “cheap” cost of gas here, I do try to be mindful about maximizing fuel efficiency — checking our tire pressure, driving a steady speed, etc.  Here’s a quick list with more suggestions for getting the best gas mileage.

The question in tonight’s debate get me thinking.  What else can I do… what sacrifices can I make? In addition to setting our AC on 78 this summer, I’m working on implementing these tips for minimizing heat loss in the winter.  But I know that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So, let me ask you: What sacrifices are you and your family making (or willing to make) to help America reduce its dependence on fuel — foreign or otherwise?

Photo Credit: StockXPert

There, I said it. Ms-Trying-to-Be-a-Greener-Parent served her son’s birthday dinner on paper plates.  If you’re at all interested in my rationale, here it is: I have been incredibly busy and stressed out, between nursing strep throat (my five year old’s), cooking and hosting Rosh Hashanah meals, and tackling a never-ending list of work commitments, my house has taken a backseat on the priority list.  To wit: My sink is practically sinking under the weight of dirty dishes. 

So, when it came time to sit down to dinner last night, I couldn’t even wrestle up seven clean plates. Which is why I copped out, grabbed the last of our disposable stash and set the table with paper plates and plastic cups.

Of course, the convenience of the disposable plates quickly got overshadowed by my eco-guilt. As Tree Hugger said back in February, eco-guilt is a powerful force — akin to Jewish mother’s guilt (at which I am an expert), but worse.

Every choice, from diapers to dishwashing, can leave parents with the stress of finding the greenest choice and the guilt of not going far enough with environmental efforts to keep your loved ones safe.

My list of guilt-inducing decisions doesn’t stop with disposable plates.  In fact, just today I managed to feel guilty about:

• Ordering a cup of tea at Panera and taking not one, but TWO, styrofoam cups. (That hot water burns right through the single-ply.) I did vow to bring my travel coffee mug the next time I visit Panera.
• Washing my dishes with Cascade gels, rather than an ecological tablet, like the ones Ecover makes. Those gels tap into my whole dilemma between living frugally vs. living green.  Many times, these two goals line up in perfect sync. But other times, I’m still choosing to use a mainstream product that I can get practically for free (thanks to advice from couponing geniuses like the Money Saving Mom).  Perhaps I’ll try making my own detergent.
• Putting my cottage cheese containers in the garbage bin rather than the recycling bin. My justification was that the sink was overflowing (remember?), so I couldn’t reach the faucet to rinse the containers out. That said, I have noticed that since implementing a home recycling program, we throw out significantly less garbage.

Tree Hugger suggests that the antidote to eco-guilt is taking action. Maybe I’d better go fish those cottage cheese containers out of the garbage.

Do you suffer from eco-guilt, too?  What trips up your green conscience?

I had a very limited budget ($2,000) and of that amount, I had to allocate several hundred toward new mattresses. Thanks to hand-me-downs from my parents, Craigslist deals and garage sale steals, I was able to pull together a comfortable, attractive apartment. No, it’s not a page out of Better Homes, but it’s no mismatched bachelor pad either. My favorite finds: A beautiful pecan-wood china cabinet and six-seat dining room table for less than $250, a less than 2-year old Maytag washer and dryer for $250, and matching Pottery Barn quilts for the boys’ beds ($20 for both, including the matching shams).

In addition to scoring home furnishings deals, I have also come to prefer shopping for my kids’ clothes (and mine, too) at garage sales and thrift stores. I’ve found some unbelievable deals: All cotton GAP PJs for $.50; Tommy Hilfiger tops for under $1.00.  There are a few items that I won’t get second-hand, namely underwear, socks and shoes.  But everything else, including the kids’ winter coats, goes on the garage sale list.

Now aside from the really good bargains, I like shopping at garage sales because they are a much more earth-friendly way to accumulate new (to us) goods.  First, there is the fact that so much of the stuff that gets sold at garage sales would otherwise end up in a landfill somewhere.  By buying it and using it as is or re-purposing it to fit our lives, we’re extending the life of that good and reducing the amount of waste in our garbage dumps. I recently read that Americans generated 246 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2005.  That’s a 60% increase since 1980.

Second, making new stuff is incredibly resource-intensive. There is the electricity and natural gas that goes into manufacturing, the petroleum that is the basis of some many of our consumable goods (think anything plastic), and of course the fuel that is used to transport these goods to our mega-malls and big box shops.  Buying the kids’ t-shirts for a quarter at a garage sale eliminates my small part in this massive energy suck.

For more on avoiding the consumer trap of new goods, check out this article from GOOD Magazine about the San Francisco-based group called the Compact. Back in 2006, Bay Area friends committed to not buying anything new (outside of food, medication and a couple other exceptions) for one year.  Their pledge sparked an international movement, which I will admit has been a real source of inspiration to me.

So, are you a seeker of second-hand deals and steals?  What’s your inspiration?

Credit: Anne Dillon

The Jewish New Year begins tonight. This seminal holiday, called Rosh Hashanah, is marked with festive family meals featuring a host of deliciously symbolic foods. Quintessential among them is the apple, which is not only a seasonal fruit, but also a sweet one. To up the sweetness quotient, we dip our apples into honey and then say a special blessing beseeching G-d to grant us a year that is as sweet as the apples.

Last week, I took my boys apple picking at a local orchard to help get them into the mood for the upcoming applelooza.  We went with my good friend Anne and her three sweet boys.  (Anne is the very talented photographer of the above picture. Check out more of her outstanding work at www.annedillon.com.)

It was a perfect fall day and we had a great time running between the trees, picking a peck of tart Jonathan apples. These beauties will be perfect in my apple challah, apple cake and apple tart. (Told you the holiday was an applepalloza.)

The apples were a pretty good deal. We paid $10 for a peck, which is about 12 pounds. Around here, a bargain bottom price on Jonathans is $.99/pound. Of course, we drove 45 minutes to get there, which skews the price comparison a bit. I have also read that some farms charge more than grocery store prices.  So if you decide to visit a pick-your-own farm or orchard, remember that you’re doing it for the experience and not necessarily the bargain.

The only bummer about our idyllic afternoon was that the apples we picked were not organic.  My understanding is that organic pick-your-own places are few and far between. And since apples are on the Dirty Dozen list (a list of the twelve most contaminated produce items), I am being careful to peel or wash well all of our loot.

If you prefer to wash your produce, try soaking it first in a sink full of water with a squirt or two of dish soap; vigorously scrub, then rinse thoroughly. Use a produce brush on hardy fruit like apples. You can also buy commercial produce washes at your local grocery store.  Or you can do what I do, which is make my own wash. Here’s a neat how-to video with the recipe I’m going to start using. You will need water, vinegar, baking soda and grapefruit seed extract (GSE).

GSE is a powerful, natural antibiotic, which also kills fungi (as I learned during a battle with a very tenacious thrush infection). I love GSE and I know you will, too. You can get it at your local Whole Foods or Wild Oats. A little goes a long, long way, so it’s a great investment for a multitude of usages.

And on that note, if you celebrate Rosh Hashanah (and even if you don’t), may your coming year be joyous and sweet.

In the spirit of doing the best that I can with the resources I have, I present you with this list of ten cheap and easy ways to reduce your family’s exposure to toxic flame retardant chemicals (if you’re not sure what I’m referring to, click over to my post from last week about PBDEs).

#1. Damp-dust all surfaces at least once a week. Chemically treated furniture and consumer goods off-gas — and those particles are found in alarming rates in your household dust. Help rid your home of this dusty danger by using a slightly damp cloth on all surfaces.  While you’re at it, mop any tiled or wood floors, too.  Especially if you’ve got little kids at home who spend a lot of time hanging out down there.

#2. Use a HEPA-filter vacuum to sweep your carpeted floors at least twice a week. I can just hear the groans now (or maybe that’s just my own voice ringing in my ears), but remember this: PBDE-laden dust isn’t just hanging out on your curio and your coffee table, it’s also getting trapped in your carpets. As an added bonus, HEPA-filter vacuums go a long way toward reducing allergens, too.

#3. Eat low-fat meat and dairy products. That’s because all those PBDEs being found in animals are accumulating in their fat.  By eating low-fat cuts of meat, you’ll be ingesting far fewer toxic chemicals. You should also try drinking skim milk. I know a lot of people turn up their noses at skim milk, but besides being heart-healthy, it’s also PBDE-free.

#4. Avoid catfish and farmed salmon. In a 2004 study of PBDE build-up in animals, catfish and salmon were two of the biggest offenders. Choose wild-caught salmon or try tilapia (yum!), which has one of the lowest levels of PBDEs.

#5. Avoid polyester like a bad 1970 movie. Seriously, aside from the fact that polyester is just an icky fabric that doesn’t let your skin breath, it’s also a petroleum-based product.  Which means, in the event of a fire, your polyester leisure suits — or your kids’ pajamas — are gonna light up in an instance.  Which means, manufacturers coat those suckers in PBDEs. Pick natural fibers when you can, and definitely insist on cotton PJs for your little ones.

#6. Buy used. As I’ve said before, new products off-gas their coating of flame retardants.  Now my understanding is that this stuff never fully goes away, and that eventually it starts to chemically decompose, which can’t be good.  Nevertheless, buying second-hand household goods and clothing does save you from that initial off-gassing. Plus, garage sale/thrift store shopping is fun and frugal. (Look for a post soon on why I prefer to buy second-hand clothes for my family.)

#7. If you are in the market for a new computer, buy an Apple. I love my MacBook.  Love, love, love.  So when I started learning about PBDEs being used on computers, I held my breath and Googled “PBDEs + Apple Computers”.  I was relieved ecstatic to read that Apple, along with other computing manufacturers like Sony, IBM and Intel, have phased out PBDEs flame retardants.  To make sure that your new computer is PBDE-free, check the packaging or refer to your manufacturer’s website.  The same goes for any new electronic purchase.

#8. Launder new clothes and sheets in hot water with ½ cup of vinegar added to the wash cycle. Repeat this two or three times before wearing them in order to strip (or at least significantly reduce) the PBDE coating. Better yet, buy natural or even organic fabrics when possible.

#9. Avoid contact with crumbling foam in upholstered furniture, carpet padding, children’s toys, etc. Don’t attempt to reupholster old foam furniture, especially if you are pregnant.  (Did I mention that PBDEs cross the placental barrier?)

#10. Wash your hands frequently. Which, incidentally, is also good advice for avoiding all kinds of other ickies, too. Make sure your kids’ hands are well washed before they eat (especially if they prefer to eat with their hands rather than silly modern inventions like forks… can you tell I write from personal experience?)

So that’s it: 10 easy way to reduce your exposure to PBDEs. Think of these tips as putting on your seatbelt before getting behind the flame retardant wheel. Do you have any other suggestions? Please leave them in the comments section!

Earlier this month, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) published the first-ever study on the levels of fire retardants found in children and their mothers. This is the same group, by the way, that had previously reported on fire retardant chemicals being found in household dust, breast milk and even umbilical cord blood. It was their studies that pushed me over the organic mattress edge. So while I was dismayed to read their most recent findings, I was also a little relieved that I had stood firm on the mattresses.

Here’s what EWG’s newest study discovered: Toddlers and preschoolers have 3 times as many fire retardant chemicals in their blood stream as their mothers do. The study found 11 different chemicals in these kids’ blood.  Eesh.

Now obviously chemicals in our kids’ blood stream doesn’t sound good. But is it really that bad? Let’s take a look.

Where are all these fire retardant chemicals coming from?
For the past 30 years, the federal government has required the manufacturers of many consumer goods to coat their products in flame retardant chemicals. The current class of flame retardant chemicals is called PBDEs, polybrominated diphenyl ethers. PBDEs are found in everything from the jewel cases on your CDs to your DVD players, from your drapes to your sheets, from your pajamas to your carpets.

The theory was that chemicals like PBDEs would slow the spread of fires, which would save lives.  What regulators didn’t know (or maybe they did?), was that these chemicals would also cause a host of health problems.

Health problems? What kind of health problems?
PBDEs are toxic chemicals that disrupt the thyroid hormone system (critical for developing brains), interfere with the nervous system and disrupt normal hormone development.

How do PBDEs wind up in our blood stream?
Scientists believe that products coated with PBDEs off-gas, and this gas turns into household dust. When you walk across your living rooms, your kick up this microscopic dust and breath it into your nostrils. When you lay your head down at night, you bury your nose in these particles, whic from your pillows, mattresses and bedding.

Even once these flame-retardant products finish their initial off-gassing, the chemicals continue to break down. While there isn’t conclusive data yet on what happens to these chemicals, I’m guessing it can’t be good.

Now in addition to off-gassing, scientists also believe that PBDEs are released into the environment during the manufacturing process.  This explains the elevated levels of fire retardant chemicals being found in wildlife and water sources.

But don’t take my word for it.  Here is what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has to say about PBDEs:

There is growing evidence that PBDEs persist in the environment and accumulate in living organisms, as well as toxicological testing that indicates these chemicals may cause liver toxicity, thyroid toxicity, and neurodevelopmental toxicity. Environmental monitoring programs in Europe, Asia, North America, and the Arctic have found traces of several PBDEs in human breast milk, fish, aquatic birds, and elsewhere in the environment.

Why do children have higher levels of PBDEs in their blood stream?
I’m not a scientist, but here’s what I have gathered.  Little kids spend a lot of time hanging out on the floor, where all this PBDE dust sits.  Their toys are also on the floor, and those toys often end up in their mouths. Additionally, kid’s tiny little bodies are not as efficient at metabolizing and excreting toxic chemicals as adults are. So in short, kids not only ingest more chemicals, but their bodies are also less able to deal with them.

How do PBDEs affect children specifically?
The brains and reproductive systems of young children are developing at break-neck pace — and that development is incredibly vulnerable to toxic chemicals. While there has not yet been a study on humans to measure the affect of PBDEs, laboratory tests have found that when PBDEs are injected into mice, they can cause permanent behavior changes, including hyperactivity.

But I thought I read that PBDEs were banned?
There were two forms of PBDEs banned in the US due to safety concerns (these forms are called Penta and Octa.) Despite the ban, furniture made before the phase-out is still being sold in the US, as is imported furniture.

The current form of PBDEs is called Deca, which, not insignificantly, has been banned in European countries due to safety issues.  The EWG study found the Deca chemical in 65 percent of the children it studies.

The news about PBDEs is definitely not good.  But not everyone can afford to spend hundreds of dollars to purchase organic furniture.  Heck, even though we splurged for the kids’ mattresses, I know we still have plenty of toxic off-gassing going on with our furniture and consumer goods.

One might ask, why did I even bother?  Well, I’m a firm believer in the you-have-to-start-somewhere approach. We were anyway buying beds for the kids, so I wanted to make sure that the expenditure was as prudent as possible. Plus, given that the average 3 year-old still needs 12 hours of sleep each day, I wanted to leverage that expenditure for maximum impact.

That Mastercard commercial comes to mind.

Hours spent researching organic mattresses: 4

Dollars spent buying organic mattresses: $900

Peace of mind from knowing that my kids are sleeping safe tonight: Priceless.

Tune in next time when I talk about simple ways to reduce PBDEs in your home (without having to buy a single new mattress).