I wanted to post about baby safety because, well: 1) Babies are obviously 1st priority and 2) one of my green blogger friends (The Accidental Environmentalist) is having a baby soon and I want to offer as much information as I can to support a healthy environment for the new one.

So, I happened by this overlooked article from Treehugger yesterday (zero Diggs as of this post) and this one specifically advises us on the toxicity of products marketed for children’s’ hygiene and also provides an informative link that I will talk about after you read this article.

According to an investigation by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) children are being exposed daily to chemicals via the use of everything from baby shampoo to diaper wipes that have not been assessed for their hazards to children.

In an online survey of more than 3,300 parents, the group found that the average child is exposed through body care products to 27 chemicals a day that have not been found safe for them, including some that are associated with brain and nervous system damage, hormone disruption, allergies and cancer. All common ingredients in baby shampoo, lotion, diaper cream, and sunscreen.

As Dr. Becky Sutton, study’s author pointed out, “Just because a shampoo or sunscreen is labeled ‘children’s’ doesn’t mean it’s been tested and found safe for kids; children are more at risk than adults from many chemical hazards, but we have no special standards to protect them.”

In conjunction with the release of this report, EWG has also put out a comprehensive parent’s buying guide to help determine which products to avoid and which to choose, which can be accessed for free via this link.

The link at the end of that article leads to Skin Deep. I admit I am a bit new to the world of online environmental awareness so this site was new to me. I was absolutely enthralled at the amount of information this site has collected pertaining children’s products.

Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group.

You can easily search for the questionable item and find a hazard rating of 1 through 10 and even the label/packaging information including: diseases the ingredients in the product are linked to, ingredients from packaging, directions from packaging, and warnings from packaging.

Before you drive down to the four giant walls mart type store and buy the cheapest thing available, try doing only a few minutes worth of research on this subject and you will change a life!

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