While celebrating my grandson Connor’s  birthday,  my thoughts drifted back to a warm summer day long ago.  My daughter Kate was visiting with her two boys, Calum 4 and Connor 1. We were relaxing with a cup of coffee and good conversation with the boys playing in the nearby room.

Suddenly Connor came into the room crying, his chubby little legs barely keeping up with his body as he literally burst through the door. We immediately noticed a strange powdery substance, almost like sugar, around his mouth. To our horror we saw little bubbles begin to emerge as he fought to spit out the powdery-looking stuff.

While Kate tried to comfort him I grabbed the phone and called the Poison Control Hotline. I knew he must have wandered into my kitchen where I had left an open dishwasher. As the operator tried to calm me down, I gave her the scenario, describing Connor’s  behavior and symptoms. She immediately asked me, “What product has the baby ingested? I replied, “Why, my non-toxic Shaklee Dishwashing Powder“, describing the brand and ingredients to her as fast as I could. I could hear the relief in her voice as she replied, “The baby will be just fine ….just a few bubbles….. just wash him up, comfort him and thank God that you did not have a toxic powder in the dishwasher dispenser!”

Following that event I began to do some research on what could have happened that day had I used another product. First of all I was shocked to learn that every year five to ten million household poisonings are reported, the immediate result of accidental ingestion of common cleaning, pesticide, personal care and other household products. Many of these poisonings are fatal, and most of the victims are children. I learned that the immediate effects of chemical exposure such as what Connor might have ingested in that split second could have resulted in a red and blistered face along with the inside of his mouth and tongue turning white. Those children who actually swallowed the powder often requires several operations to reopen the scarred esophagus Some children literally have to eat through tubes for months while going through operation after operation.

I took a trip to the grocery store and found that every dishwashing product on the shelf had chlorine as its first ingredient. The chlorine in conventional detergents is easily vaporized by hot dishwasher water and then released into our home’s  air. I had not used anything but my non-toxic Shaklee products for the last 15 years and literally forgot what lethal chemicals are in these toxic products.

I feel so blessed that someone shared environmentally-safe, non-toxic products with me and made a difference in my life and certainly that of my grandson Connor’s  life that day!  I think of every day as Earth Day and the daily choices we make can make an enormous difference.

17 years ago I was introduced to the idea of actually using products in my home that were non-toxic. Although I had already raised my children and unfortunately exposed them to the chemicals in my cleaners, I still had my grandchildren to think about. I began to develop my ongoing passion to help families set up non-toxic homes. These non-toxic, biodegradable products actually worked better than those I had used for years with the chemicals. Watch this video and join in this movement to help create a safer place for all of our children.  If you are already using non-toxic products and like them, great.  If not, ask me about the products that changed my life.

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

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It seems like everyday I hear about another person struck down with cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, if you are male in this country, you have a 47% chance of getting cancer. If you are female, you fare a little better, but you still have a whopping 38% lifetime chance of getting cancer. Despite the greatly funded War on Cancer, it seems we have made little progress.

I just came across the film trailer about this very subject, based on the book, Living Downstream, by cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. Her mission with this amazing documentary film is to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. The connection she makes between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land and water is very powerful.

We often think that genetics play a role in this disease. According to the authors of a major review on diet and cancer, prepared for the U.S. Congress in 1981, genetics only determines about 2-3% of the total cancer risk.  Quite a few of Sandra’s family had cancer which indicated it was “in her genes.” However, Sandra was adopted. That began her own search into what else families had in common besides their DNA, which, of course, led to the environment around us.,

A story which breaks tonight on CNN, Toxic America , June 2 and June 3 at 8:00 p.m. ET, investigates the environment’s effects on our well-being as part of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s special.   It discusses the same issues that Sandra found, that pervasive chemicals are on the move, invading our land and our bodies.  I was fortunate enough to be introduced many years ago to safe, non-toxic household cleaners so have at least been able to eliminate the toxins from the inside of our home; however, both the CNN special and Sandra’s moving story is about industrial pollution, an issue we should all be concerned about.

In the book, The China Study, T. Colin Campbell, PhD, after a long career in research and policy making, believes it is not just the synthetic chemicals in our environment and in our food,  nor the genes we inherit from our parents that leads to diseases such as cancer, but that a good diet based on plant-based foods are the healthiest and tend to avoid chronic disease.  His “China Study”  produced more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease.

My own four steps to address this “war on cancer” include the following:

1.  Continue to use my non-toxic, environmentally safe household products.

2.  Educate myself by watching the CNN special on June 2, 3 (Join the live blog conversation starting at 8 PM ET on June 3rd:  http://www.enviroblog.org.) as well as seeing the documentary, Living Downstream.

3.  Seriously consider eating more of a plant-based diet and buy as much local food as possible.

4.  Continue taking whole food supplements to feed my cells.

What are your steps in fighting the “war on cancer?”

“One is not born into the world to do everything,
but to do something.” Henry David Thoreau

When I found out about this movie, OCEANS, I was very excited to share the news. I plan to see it with our grandchildren so they can see the wonders that nature offers us all. If you go during the first week of its showing (it opened today – Earth Day) Disney will donate some of the proceeds to saving the coral reef.

As I was sorting my recycling today at the local recycle bins I thought about my own childhood and how that was not even in my radar to do. We were not then aware of how little things like recycling and using non-toxic products could help our planet (and our breathing space!)  Chemicals were just then really becoming the norm to “super clean” our bathrooms, kitchen floors, etc. My mom loved her bleach and Ajax and all those super cleaners.

It wasn’t until I was a grandmother that I discovered that toxins in our home really affected all of us. Now my grandchildren benefit. I love sharing everything I know about pollution, environmentally-safe products, recycling, etc. with other families now. (One of the moms I shared a green product with did a post about it).  Be sure and check it out as there is a giveaway offered as well.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change
the world.
Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead

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