May 15, 2015

The national women’s health nonprofit Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) has come out with a fun way to get rid of toxic chemicals lurking in the home: Throw a party.  The organization has been working closely with parents concerned about disconcerting news that unregulated toxic chemicals, including carcinogens, can be found in everyday personal care products, cleaners, and other common household products.

As a result, WVE developed the Green Momma Party. Designed for baby showers, parents’ groups, or get-togethers with friends, a Green Momma Party educates parents about reducing toxic chemicals in the home while empowering them to become advocates for safer products at the same time.

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Contact:
Sian Wu, swu@colehourcohen.com, 206-701-4734
Cassidy Randall, cassidyr@womensvoices.org, 406-543-3747

MISSOULA, Mont. –The national women’s health nonprofit Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) has come out with a fun way to get rid of toxic chemicals lurking in the home: throw a party.  The organization has been working closely with parents concerned about disconcerting news that unregulated toxic chemicals, including carcinogens, can be found in everyday personal care products, cleaners, and other common household products. As a result, WVE developed the Green Momma Party. Designed for baby showers, parents’ groups, or get-togethers with friends, a Green Momma Party educates parents about reducing toxic chemicals in the home while empowering them to become advocates for safer products at the same time.

“I’m a new mom myself, so I know the feeling of wanting to make sure you’re providing the safest environment possible for your kids,” said WVE executive director Erin Switalski. “But detoxing your home can be overwhelming – and cost prohibitive. So we’ve developed this party to give parents the resources they need to make changes they can afford and do easily. And by having a party, it’s fun!”

People can sign up online to host a Green Momma Party and download WVE’s free Green Momma Party Guide, which includes steps for hosting a party, non-toxic tips for each room in the house, economical do-it-yourself recipes for safer products that have been pre-tested by parents and verified by scientific experts, and more. The result is reducing the family’s exposure to toxics in conventional products, while having fun and educating friends and family about the importance of making green choices in the home.

But the party is about more than just making personal choices; the party-goers will have the opportunity to collectively take action to demand safer products in the marketplace.

“We need regulations that ultimately protect the public,” says Switalski. “We can make personal choices that will result in a healthier home, but it is impossible to remove every hidden toxic hazard in the home without strong laws.”

It is estimated that between 80,000 and 85,000 chemicals are in use in the environment in United States, yet only about 200 of these chemicals have been tested for safety. Women’s Voices for the Earth believes that all products, especially those for vulnerable populations like babies, should be safe and non-toxic.

WVE’s Green Momma Parties build on the success of the organization’s Green Cleaning Parties launched in 2008, which empowered people to make their own homemade cleaners as an alternative to conventional cleaning products. That effort resulted in thousands of people holding green cleaning parties in every state in the U.S., as well as internationally. Since then, major cleaning product manufacturers such as SC Johnson & Son, Clorox, and Reckitt-Benckiser have begun disclosing chemical ingredients and made efforts to phase out chemicals of concern.

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Women’s Voices for the Earth is a national organization that works to eliminate toxic chemicals that impact women’s health by changing consumer behaviors, corporate practices and government policies.

May 10, 2012

Michael Hawthorne

Firemaster 550, touted as safe, is the latest in a long line of flame retardants allowed onto the market without thorough study of health risks. By the early 2000s, the flame retardant known as penta had become a villain.

Packed by the pound into couches and other furniture, the chemical was turning up in the blood of babies and in breast milk around the world. The European Union voted to ban penta after researchers linked it to developmental and neurological problems in children, and manufacturers pulled it from the market.

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May 10, 2012

Michael Hawthorne

With efforts to revamp the nation’s chemical safety law stalled in Congress, the Obama administration’s top environmental regulator vowed three years ago to act on her own to beef up the oversight of toxic substances.

But key parts of the initiative by Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are still bottled up in an obscure White House office under intense pressure from industry lobbyists to back off.

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May 7, 2012

Bill Chameides

More than 80,000 chemicals are produced, used, and present in the United States. This is one of their stories.

Recently The New York Times‘ Green blog raised the spotlight on a report released last November on toxic chemicals found in 20 popular cleaning products. Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national environmental group based in Missoula, Mont., had commissioned independent tests on all-purpose cleaners, laundry detergents, dryer sheets, air fresheners, disinfectant sprays, and furniture polish made by Clorox, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, SC Johnson, and Sunshine Makers. The testing revealed that a number of the products had chemicals that are known to be allergens or are linked to reproductive and endocrine disruption… and cancer.

I have to say the findings do not come as a huge surprise. Previous work (see here and here) has documented the ubiquity of toxic chemicals in everyday consumer products. It’s not even that surprising that some of these compounds are absent from product labels. What may be surprising is that the language used to market some of these toxic-containing products suggests that they would be anything but toxic-containing.

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May 2, 2012

So you and your friends have done book club get-togethers, wine tasting shindigs and even batch cooking dinners. But have you ever thrown a green cleaning party? No? Well get ready to have fun and get un-toxicated!

The national nonprofit Women’s Voices for the Earth will launch their “Green Momma Party Guide” on May 11 to help new mothers “green” their house and reduce their infant or toddler’s exposure to toxics in conventional products. Instead of trying to tackle a green house detox by themselves, though, the Green Momma Party Guide makes it fun by giving tips and recipes to throw a ‘Green Momma Party.’ The recipes have been tested by real parents, and are verified by scientific experts to be great non-toxic alternatives to everyday products.

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