Tires have a huge environmental impact, from production, to use to discarding them. Tires are made from natural rubber and synthetic rubber, produced from the polymers found in crude oil. The other primary ingredient in tire rubber is carbon black. Carbon black is a fine, soft powder created when crude oil or natural gas is burned with a limited amount of oxygen.
Read MoreWith the summer around the corner, I thought it would be a good idea to look at what sunscreens actually are and do. We are supposed to apply it over our whole body and multiple times a day, so the ingredients in sunscreen should not be irritating or cause skin allergies.
First let's look at the two kinds of sun blockers. The first one is the physical kind, like zinc and titanium dioxide, and the second is the chemical kind, like oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and octinoxate.
Read MorePeople have been asking me why I started publishing My Green Goodiebag. You can check out the short story in the About section, but I thought you might like to know a little more.
Like so many other mothers I was fairly unaware of what went in my shampoo, day cream or shower gel until I had kids, of which one has eczema.
Read MoreThere is growing concern about the safety of all the personal care products that we put on our skin on a daily basis. Scientists are paying particular attention to endocrine disruptors, chemicals that mess with the hormones your body’s endocrine system regulates, and the diseases that are linked to these, like brain disorders, reproductive issues, obesity and cancer. But what about tampons and other feminine hygiene products? It seems that these should be on the growing list of potentially hazardous personal care products.
Read MoreOur clothes are made of either natural fibers or synthetic fibers. Synthetic fibers are made of polymers. The word polymer refers to a chemical substance composed of molecules that form long repeating chains, a characteristic that is useful in synthetic fibers. Synthetic fibers are made of chemicals that are often derived from coal or petroleum.
Read MorePhthalates are a group of chemicals (including DEHP, DINP, DBP, DEP) used to soften and increase the flexibility of plastic and PVC (vinyl). They can be found in hundreds of consumer products, from toys to electronics, from flooring to shower curtains and from lotions to body wash. Since phthalates do not chemically bound to the plastics they´re added to, they continue to be released long after you´ve bought them. Children are especially vulnerable to exposure to phthalates because they put so much in their mouths and because they have developing nervous and reproductive systems.
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