Does Your Sunscreen Protect Against Skin Cancer?

Hello, June! School's almost out and the temperature is rising. It's time to hit the beach. Most of the time we opt for covering up over wearing sunscreen when spending time in the sun, but for long outdoor adventures, we use sunscreen.

Environmental Working Group has released its 6th Annual Sunscreen Guide. Let's review the main reasons you need to consult this guide:

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Flame Retardants: Toxic, Ineffective, Everywhere

The more I learn about synthetic flame retardant chemicals, the happier I am about all the effort I've put into avoiding products that contain them. The Chicago Tribune has been running a fascinating series about flame retardants called Playing with Fire.

Here are 10 interesting takeaways from the Chicago Tribune's coverage of flame retardants (indented passages are quotations from Chicago Tribune articles):


1. Flame retardants cause more harm than good. The evidence regarding the harmful effects of flame retardants is much more extensive and reliable than the evidence for the benefits. Flame retardant chemicals have been linked to neurological deficits, developmental problems, impaired fertility and other health risks.

[S]cientists at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have determined that the flame retardants in household furniture aren't effective, and some pose unnecessary health risks. (source)

The bottom line: Household furniture often contains enough chemicals to pose health threats but not enough to stem fires — "the worst of both possible worlds," [fire scientist Vytenis Babrauskas] said. (source)

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Flame Retardants

This post has been updated.
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Experimentation = Success + Failure

Since I embarked on my green journey, I have made numerous gradual changes to our lifestyle as time and budget have allowed. Making these changes has usually required not only some time-consuming research but a fair amount of experimentation. But here's the thing about experimentation. You will fail. At least some of the time. And that's kind of a bummer. Even when you know it's just part of the deal. Here are some of my recent green successes and failures.

Failures

Yogurt
Most of the time when I make homemade yogurt, it turns out pretty well. But every now and then, the yogurt doesn't set. So after incubating the yogurt all night, in the morning I find....warm milk (with a little yogurt in it). I have no idea if I can use this milk for anything safely (anyone???), so I end up throwing it away. Which is very depressing. Not least of which for the poor cow who put a lot of energy into making that milk (as I, a milk-maker myself, am well aware). When this happens, it takes me weeks to summon up the ganas to make yogurt again.

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Early Potty Training at 6 Months

For the past several weeks, my baby has made a deposit in the potty every single morning. We are well beyond this being a fluke.I've been putting her on the potty first thing in the morning for nearly a month. If I get her on the potty really fast, often her diaper is barely wet at all. Ninety percent of the time she pees and poops. And on those days I rarely have to change a poopy diaper. She spends five to ten minutes on the potty at a time. I still have to hold her on the potty as she doesn't yet have the control to sit up unassisted.

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Lazy Homemade Ice Cream Cake

Ice cream cake: name is obscured because I'm a privacy nut

I never saw it officially announced, but it looks to me like the Green Phone Booth theme for May is Greener Parties!

If you are too lazy to make the ice cream cake posted earlier this week, here is the truly lazy method:

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Homemade Yogurt

Homemade yogurt: delicious with homemade granola

Homemade yogurt is one of those things that is so easy... once you figure it out.  There are about a gazillion posts and web pages about how to make homemade yogurt. And all are determined to convince you how very simple and doable it is. And yet they all give slightly different directions. And often give pseudo-scientific reasons for doing so (e.g., if you add too much starter the bacteria in the culture fights with each other and won't work correctly). The problem is the number of variables involved:

• Milk (whole, 2%, skim, raw, pasteurized, goat, cow, sheep)
• Type of starter (brand of yogurt, greek or regular, flavored or not, powdered)
• Ratio of starter to milk
• Method of heating milk
• Temperature milk needs to reach to kill vagrant bacteria
• Temperature milk needs to cool to before adding starter
• Other ingredients (powdered milk, gelatin, flavorings, sweetener)
• Incubation temperature 
• Length of incubation period 
• Method of incubation 

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Environmental Causes of Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders

For many years, autism research has focused on genetic factors. But researchers estimate that "the total fraction of ASD attributable to genetic inheritance may be about 30–40%." Now many are calling for more extensive research of environmental factors, including the tens of thousands of untested chemicals that individuals are exposed to via consumer products as well as the environment at large (air, water, soil). The brains of embryos and fetuses are believed to be especially susceptible to toxic chemicals. A workshop of leading researchers convened by the Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center, with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Autism Speaks, generated a list of "10 chemicals and mixtures widely distributed in the environment that are already suspected of causing developmental neurotoxicity":

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Do You Live in One of the Most Polluted U.S. Cities?

See a larger version of this infographic here.

I've spent 27 years of my life in cities that rank in the worst ten U.S. cities for air pollution. I don't live in one of the worst 10 now, but my current area earns an "F" for Ozone and Particle Pollution. 

Check the air quality ratings for your city here.

Read about how to protect yourself from the health risks of air pollution here.

Read facts about air quality here.

Read the key findings from the State of the Air Report 2012 here.

Read the full report State of the Air 2012 by American Lung Association here.

Most importantly, tell your representatives to stand up to big oil and fight for clean air here.

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The Green Phone Booth: Homemade Snacks Linky

Today at the Green Phone Booth I posted a Link Up for homemade snacks. If you have a favorite homemade snack recipe or idea, please link up your blog post or leave the recipe in the comments. My post also includes several of posts from the archives of the Green Phone Booth about snacks, including simple ideas for easy, unprocessed, kid-friendly snacks, as well as recipes for homemade fish crackers, English muffins, and bagels.

Click here to read the post.

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