Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Kimberly Jordan Allen is a freelance writer focusing on health and wellness. Kimberly's work has been featured in E/The Environmental Magazine, NY Spirit, Check Biotech, and the Organic Consumers Association website.

This author has contributed 91 posts.

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Ecofriendly High Chairs

8 Comments

07/14/08

Pondering the essence of an avocado.

When I first started to research high chairs, I was looking for wood. I checked out vinyl chairs by the big brands, just to see some of the desirable features people seek. Some of the chairs looked like they were made by LaZboy, with children reclining, lots of padding, and massive stands that take up half the room. These beasts, usually composed of PVC, and other harmful petroleum-based products that off-gas, are either passed down (which is the best way to acquire them, as opposed to purchasing new) or end up in landfills for the next 16,000 years. Luckily, there are better options these days. Here are a few of the ones I have found.

Stokke
The Trip Trapp is attractive and simple to use. They are easy to assemble, from the folks I know who have them. They come in a bunch of fun colors and they are created from sustainably harvested wood in Europe. They become toddler chairs and can be used as the child grows up. One of my friends wishes that the Stokke had a tray, because the surrounding mess can be a bit laboursome.

The advantage of no tray is that your tot gets to be part of the festivities, joining the family for meals at the table. This can encourage better table manners and allows the babes to feel they are truly part of the scene. Children can easily climb up into it, once they are toddlers, which is a nice feature also. It is sleek and fits neatly with many different styles.

Svan
The Svan is a good chair made from sustainably harvested wood. It can last a lifetime because the chair adapts into the teen years (which is a nice marketing point, but as some of you know, once kids get big enough, they want to sit in an adult chair and want nothing to do with their former baby accoutrement.) From a design stand-point, this chair is modern and functional. There are many color choices of both wood and cushion and it takes up minimal space, however I would not bother getting the cushion. The kids don’t need it to be comfy and there is a huge gunge factor.

Some people get frustrated by the chair because the straps are hard to reach once a child is placed in the seat. You have to dig around to reach them. These chairs can also get really funky, from food. There are many nooks and crannies to clean and it can take some time but the chairs do come with a BPA-free tray that snaps onto the wooden tray. For cleaning we have hosed them down, brought them into the shower (not advised) and scrubbed them outside to get them clean. It is possible – it just takes some work. I have yet to see a high chair that doesn’t require some serious upkeep. One other note, the darker wood tends to chip and fade from the plastic tray. This can make the chair look kind of shoddy.

The Stokke is probably one of the easier to maintain, although the ensuing debris surrounding the chair (on the floor, table, family dog) and lack of tray might minimize the simplicity. The Stokke is a bit easier to incorporate as it truly fits at the dining table and brings the family together. The Svan can purportedly do the same, but the chairs are just a bit more awkward. On the plus side, they encourage good posture, since kids are sitting upright. The Stokke, from what others have told me, is much easier to assemble than the Svan. The Svan took hours and the instructions (and accompanying DVD) were not all that simple, even for a seasoned Ikea assembler.

Safety 1st Wood High Chair
Made from New Zealand pine that is sustainable and renewable, the Safety First chairs are the cheapest of the three environmentally conscious brand-name choices listed. On the design front it is simple and unassuming. The chair may not be sleek or modern, but it gets the job done for a reasonable price.

Restaurant Style Wood High Chair
These things are inexpensive and simple. You can just google restaurant high chair and find a ton of them. They do not have trays, which means it is table eating for your little one. They are usually inexpensive because they are not made from quality wood (I could not find one that stated it came from environmentally conscious production) but if you are getting one used, it is a great way to go.

If you prefer to just do a booster, and avoid having a big high chair to deal with, the HandySitt booster seems to be popular. It is sleek and simple and many people like to use them for traveling or heading out to a restaurant. There is not a ton of cleaning and kids are part of the family meal.

The best one can do, when acquiring any baby/kid gear is try for used first! There is such a vast array of resources such as Craigslist, Babyloot, Zwaggle, and eBay not to mention friends, family, TAG SALES! We found all of our outdoor toys at tag sales this year. It felt good to recycle and not have to purchase anything in a store. My feeling is, even if it is plastic and a bit of an eyesore, if you are keeping it from ending up in a landfill, that is a good thing. Virtually anything you need can be found if you look carefully. Often you can find quality items if you just invest a bit of time.

baby gear, high chairs, sustainable wood

Greased Lightning: Veggie Greasecar

4 Comments

07/11/08

Recently, my family has been considering going veggie at the pump. We are thinking we can help a few restaurants in our neighborhood by providing waste management for their used veggie oil!

At Greasecar you can learn all about running vehicles on vegetable oil. In their classifieds you can pick up a used diesel vehicle that is already converted or, if you are mechanically inclined, you can buy a kit and convert an existing diesel engine to SVO/WVO (straight veggie oil-made from crops- or waste veggie oil-used oil from restaurants) yourself.

It’s a pretty simple process you can do in your garage and once its done, all you have to do is filter the oil, and you can run your diesel vehicle FOR FREE on recycled fuel. In these times, when many are trying to get off the crude, this is a viable alternative. Most restaurants are happy to give you their used oil because they often have to pay for disposal.

There is some mixed information and controversy out there regarding SVO, WVO, and bio-diesel emissions. Greasecar maintains that using SVO/WVO that has been filtered is still better for the environment than straight diesel or gasoline. On their site they address this:

There is no sulfur content in vegetable oil which eliminates the first major carcinogen associated with diesel fuel. Vegetable oil plants absorb more carbon dioxide from the air during their growing cycle than is released when the oil is burned, this means that vegetable oil does not produce excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (this is referred to as carbon neutral). Due to a slightly cooler burn some studies have shown NOX reductions when burning vegetable oil. More studies are underway and results will vary depending on engine and tuning. As a sulfur free, bio-mass fuel vegetable oil emissions are less harmful to the environment and less toxic to people and animals.

There are some veggie systems that allow you to just pour oil right into the car with simple or minimal filtration, but this is ill advised, as it usually does harm to the engine and shortens the lifespan of the vehicle. Using dirty fuel can also increase emission output. Filtering the oil is a bit labour intensive, but to ensure smooth travels, it is worthwhile. Greasecar offers home and on-board filtration kits, depending on what is most convenient, and their motto is “FILTER, FILTER, FILTER.” The cleaner the fuel, the cleaner it burns and the longer your vehicle lasts.

The guys at Greasecar are very knowledgeable and helpful with any questions you may have. Business is booming for these alternative energy systems right now. There may be a bit of expense up front to get your vehicle up and running, but to avoid paying $4.59 a gallon, or anything for that matter, is worth investigation. You may smell like a french fry, but you’re smiling all the way to the bank, and maybe even minimizing that carbon footprint a little bit.

alternative fuel, cars, Energy, vegetable oil

Cell Towers and Health Effects: Cellular Disservice?

3 Comments

07/08/08

This past week a local in my town contacted me to see if I would be interested in discussing the issues surrounding a potential cellular tower that would be constructed within one mile of my house. Some of us from the town had the chance to voice our concerns to the Connecticut Siting Council, which is the governing body that determines zoning for these towers in our state.

Having written about microwave energy and electromagnetic fields a few years ago, I remembered interviewing Carl Blackman, a research scientist in the Environmental Carcinogenesis Division of the EPA, and asking him about cell phones and cellular base stations in relation to electromagnetic fields and the possible health impact. Blackman was one among quite a few scientists and researchers I interviewed who reiterated the same sentiment: “We just don’t know yet. The science is not in.” The fact that the jury is still out on this vast topic, in a field (pardon the pun) that is ever-expanding, is enough, for some, to warrant grassroots action.

The subject is controversial and highly debated, although the issue is one that people are dealing with world-wide. The fear is that without mobile phones and cell towers covering every inch of land, emergency services will be left without connection, leaving us, “with a hole big enough to drive a hearse through…” as I recently read in a concerned citizen’s letter to the NYTimes. One concern is that the proliferation of these towers and devices has gone largely unmonitored, unregulated, and, according to some scientists, could potentially lead to serious health issues.

The World Health Organization has advised that the “precautionary principle” be enacted as a preemptive move before certainty of harm is verified by science. This essentially means that when any new technology is evolving beyond the scope of scientific research, it is advisable to protect oneself through risk management. So, while some still think that those who discuss this topic with seriousness are delusional and should be stuttering through the park, wearing a tinfoil hat, others, including the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, and member countries of the European union feel it is worth serious discussion.

In Europe, some governments have set exposure standards below those of the standardizing agencies, in order to try to protect their citizens. In India, towers were recently banned from school and residential areas to protect people following studies that showed potential harm to the brain. The United States Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 704(a) removes environmental considerations from the tower siting process, which denies citizens the opportunity to protest based on ecological concerns (zoning) or health issues.

In 2006, the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF,) the largest union of first responders in North America, passed a resolution banning cellular towers from firehouses until more research is done, because firefighters were suffering from ill health. Internationally, the concern regarding the exponential proliferation of wireless devices and base stations to support them has provoked scientific studies and prompted legislators to err on the side of caution when it comes to regulations. Many scientists are discussing the potential impact on DNA, neurological function, and human health while others study migratory birds and the reproduction patterns of all animal populations in the vicinity of strong electromagnetic fields.

In my town, in NW Connecticut, we are currently experiencing the battle. The cellular tower has been proposed to be on Route 7, a scenic highway that runs parallel with the Appalachian Trail. The AT park manager has sent a letter in response to the proposed tower stating that they had no problem with it, so long as Cellco/Verizon makes the tower look like a tree and plants 25 white pines along the trail.

The tower site is also within one mile of two schools and is next door to the largest employer of the town. The site abuts a friend’s property. Both he and his wife are cancer survivors and fear the tower could affect their health. At the public hearing, where town members were allowed to voice their opinions to the siting commission (who ultimately decides whether the tower goes up or not,) people expressed various concerns:
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allergies, Animals, birds, Cancer, car, children, death, Energy, epa, Europe, farm, health, India, interview, local, magazine, media, mom, News, NYTimes, oil, opinion, Outdoors, Plants, schools, skin, spring, Technology, Teens, trees

Organic Style: Baby Sale for Eco Chick Readers!

2 Comments

07/05/08

Organic Style has some cute baby items, especially their gift baskets. The veggie teething rings are really well made and full of yummy organic cotton to chomp on. My kids have been playing with them for 17 months now and I will still look over and see someone with the green beans or the carrot. I highly recommend them. They also have some really nice receiving blankets (you never think you need those blankies and swaddles but we used them constantly.)

They are offering 20% off for Eco Chick readers. CLICK HERE! (discount automatically applied through 7/31/08)

Baby, car, cotton, farm, kids, Organic, organic cotton, organic style, Outdoors, style

Mothers Milk Project: The Anti Nuclear Weapon

21 Comments

06/20/08

For those living within fifty miles of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, there is a new way to document the potential impact of nuclear energy and radioactive waste. Breast milk: who knew it could be an (anti-)nuclear weapon?

The Mothers Milk Project is an endeavor founded by longtime activists Nancy Burton (of Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone) and Gail Merrill (a breast cancer survivor.) Rock the Reactors is a project supporter. Whether through spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste, or medical by-products, Strontium-90, a radioactive isotope, is present in our environment.

According to Burton, goat milk sampled 5.5 miles from the Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford, Conn. has tested high for strontium-90. She says the surrounding area has a high incidence of leukemia, early childhood mortality, miscarriage, bone cancer, childhood cancer and breast cancer. She wants to see if the same is true for the areas surrounding Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in Buchanan, New York.

Nuclear power proponents claim there is no health risk with nuclear energy. However, plants such as Indian Point deposit Strontium-90 and other radionuclides into our atmosphere, affecting living organisms within a certain radius of the facility.

Here is a map representing the fifty mile radius of the plant, within which the current testing is occurring.

Mothers Milk Project is taking samples from women in Fairfield County in Connecticut and Westchester and Rockland Counties in New York state. The donated cup of milk will be divided into four parts: 1/4 cup for the NY State Department of Health, 1/4 cup for Entergy (parent company of Indian Point and Vermont Yankee,) 1/4 cup to be retained by the project’s independent laboratory and 1/4 cup to be retained by the project for possible re-testing.

The Project has also requested that New York State continue testing of local animals and mammals, which it did until 1991, then stopped.

The biological activity of Strontium-90 is similar to that of calcium. It enters our body through contaminated food or water, and is deposited in our bones, teeth and bone marrow, where it can disrupt cellular activity.

During routine operations, Indian Point is designed to release fission byproducts into the air and water. One such radionuclide, krypton, rapidly decays to strontium-90, a beta particle which mimics calcium in its chemical composition. Strontium-90 is readily absorbed in bone tissue and teeth. With a half-life (decay period) of 30 years, it disrupts nearby cells and is known to cause leukemia, bone cancer, diseases of the immune system and cancers of soft tissues such as breast and lung. Children and developing babies are especially vulnerable to its effects.

Strontium-90 is linked to cancer, leukemia, and diseases of the immune system. If you live within the 50 mile radius of the plant and are currently breastfeeding, donate your milk! Anonymity is respected, as only zip codes are recorded.

“Breastfeeding mothers and others are entitled to know if harmful radioactive effluents are entering our milk supply,” Burton said. “We believe ‘breast is best’ and our babies should be protected from insidious contaminants,” she added.

babies, breastmilk, Energy, nuclear power, nukes