Blog Posts by MomsRising

Mother's Day

By Claire Moshenberg

Happy (almost) Mother's Day! Celebrate the moms in your life with nontoxic gifts and treats. With these easy tips, you can take toxic chemicals out of your Mother's Day breakfast, create your own luxurious beauty gifts for mom, and wrap up your Mother's Day presents in environmentally friendly, affordable packaging.

Breakfast in Bed: Treating a mom in your life to breakfast in bed? You can keep your meal and fun and delicious while keeping pesky toxic chemicals at bay.

• Wash the rinds and peels: Wash all of your produce, even produce with inedible peels and rinds. It's especially important to follow this rule if you're slicing through the peel, since chemicals from the peel can transfer into the fruit's flesh through your knife. If you're zesting citrus fruits, make sure to scrub the peel and try to buy organic. You should scrub fruits and veggies for about 30 seconds each, which you can measure by singing the Happy Birthday song twice.
• Watch your

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Photo credit: Photo by Flickr user Will Nickelson

By Claire Moshenberg

Great news: Nontoxic baby care products don't have to be expensive! Organic, nontoxic, or even fragrance free items for our little ones can veer towards the pricey side. Luckily, there are easy, affordable DIY solutions for many commonly used baby care products.

Here are our top 5 DIY nontoxic baby care products (Not up for a DIY project? We have bonus tips at the end on how to buy the best nontoxic baby care products):

Baby powder: Avoid potentially toxic talc by skipping commercial baby powders and making your own. This recipe from the Smart Mama is super easy and only uses two ingredients. If you buy baby powder, make sure it's:

• Fragrance Free
• Talc-Free

Diaper rash cream: Replace standard diaper rash cream with coconut oil. Coconut oil is a great moisturizer, it smells amazing, and it has anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties. If you don't have coconut oil, Simple Organic

My worst toxic chemical catastrophes all have to do with cleaning emergencies. Erupting late night sinks, followed by a newly filthy kitchen floor. Grocery stores that aren't open, budgets that can't accomodate a last minute batch of organic cleaning supplies, home emergencies at odd hours when my only option is a hastily acquired bottle of some pungent, toxic cleaning potion from the corner store.

Luckily, after a hand full (or more) of these toxic cleaning moments, I've learned that cleaning supplies are the easiest, cheapest items to detox and DIY. Here are three lists of common kitchen items with cleaning supply recipes made out of these simple, around-the-house ingredients.

Shopping tips:

• Check the label when you're buying liquid castile soap; Women's Voices for the Earth recommends avoiding sodium lauryl (laureth) sulfate (SLS) and Diethanolamine (DEA).

• Vinegar refers to white distilled vinegar.

• The only thing you'll need outside of these basic

By Claire Moshenberg

Halloween is here! Well, almost. And while the kids in your life are probably thrilled about the sugary jack-o-lantern strewn bonanza that is Halloween, the parent side of Halloween planning is a bit more tricky (The phrase "How is the store out of costumes already?! HOW?!" comes to mind).

Look, in the grand scheme of holidays, Halloween can be costly, complicated, and not traditionally eco-friendly. Luckily, it is also incredibly, ridiculously easy to makeover. Costumes can be found, faces can be painted, and tricks and treats can be dispensed, all at a low-cost, in a green way. Here's a Tips Tuesday breakdown on how to detox your Halloween:

Face paint:

**Not so fun fact: The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics tested ten popular face paints for toxic chemicals in their report "Pretty Scary: Heavy Metals in Face Paints." All ten had lead, while others contained allergens like nickel, cobalt, and chromium.

DIY: Save some money and minimize your child's

By Claire Moshenberg

Toxic chemicals don't just show up in foods, toys, and cosmetics for people; they also like to make an appearance in goods for pets. October is National Pet Wellness month, and we're celebrating by helping you keep your pet healthy and green with these top 5 green tips for pets:

Do your homework: In the market for a new doggie bed or chew toy? Find the least toxic versions of a wide variety of pet goods by looking them up on HealthyStuff.org. Their database covers tennis balls, pet beds and chew and tug toys.

If you're grocery shopping for your pets, look up pet food for dogs and cats on the Good Guide before you buy.

Pet-care and cleaning products: When it comes to cosmetics, like soap or shampoo, look for simple, organic products, or make your own. One low cost, non-toxic alternative to dog shampoo is baking soda. A small amount can be rubbed into your dog's coat, then brushed into their fur. Whether you're buying organic products or

By Claire Moshenberg

With the seasons changing, many magazines want to help you create your new look for fall with a smorgasbord of trends. Beauty trends are fun; toxic chemical exposures are not. Did you know that the average woman is exposed to 125 chemicals from cosmetics before she walks out the door in the morning?

Try the new trends, but curb the chemical chaos by applying these top 5 nontoxic tips to your Fall beauty routine:

Thicker moisturizers: That cool autumn air might feel great on your skin; unfortunately, it can also be incredibly drying. As we get closer to winter, it's time to up the ante on your moisturizer. This is the world's easiest DIY, because you can ditch your commercial product for a one-ingredient, non-toxic alternative. Coconut oil and olive oil make great body moisturizers. You can add a drop or two of essential oil for scent (though coconut oil in particular smells great on its own). If you want to purchase a moisturizer, look it up on the Good

By Claire Moshenberg

Hundreds of studies have linked BPA to serious health problems, including cancer, heart disease, obesity, and a number of reproductive issues. With 2 billion pounds of BPA produced annually in the US, it's no wonder that 93% of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their bodies.

So with BPA making a cameo appearance in nearly every canned good on the market (including organic canned foods for kids), what is a responsible grocery shopper to do? Stop buying cans all together? Completely cutting canned goods out of your grocery shopping might not be possible. And that's okay! Instead of worrying about getting rid of everything, lets edit out the worst canned goods and find economical solutions for replacing them. Here are the top six tips for taking BPA off your grocery list:

Beans and Chickpeas: Skipping canned beans and chickpeas originally seemed impossible to me. Turns out, soaking, and cooking, your own beans and chickpeas is not only the best

by Claire Moshenberg

Toy Story. Disney Princesses. Dangerous toxic chemicals. One of these things is not like the others, right? Wrong.

A new study by the Breast Cancer Fund shows that the dangerous toxic chemical BPA appears in a wide variety of canned foods specifically marketed towards kids like Campbell's Disney Princess Cool Shapes Pasta with Chicken in Chicken Broth and Campbell's Toy Story Fun Shapes noodles. [1] Even seemingly healthy brands like Annie's Homegrown and Earth's Best Organic are on the list of canned kids foods featuring a chemicals linked to breast cancer, obesity, prostate cancer, learning disabilities, infertility, and more! [2]

Tell Campbell Soup Company, Con Agra (maker of Chef Boyardee), Annie's Homegrown and Hain Celestial (maker of Earth's Best) to stop marketing BPA to kids.

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/BPAKidsCans/

In their new report, BPA in Kids' Canned Foods, the Breast Cancer Fund has discovered BPA in six popular