How focused are you on the toxins around you and your sons in your home?
The Center for Disease Control has a list of over 200 products that you should avoid. This list can be overwhelming, and avoiding all these products seems pretty unrealistic. However, we thought these were worth mentioning:
Plastic food containers: We all use plastic containers during the course of the week to store our leftovers, but after a few times of washing, you may notice that the plastic looks like it is fading. This usually means it is breaking down and releasing chemicals into your food including phthalates (a chemical recently found to affect the reproductive development of boys). Best advice? Use glass containers whenever possible, and dump those cloudy looking plastic containers.
Nonstick Pans: Did you know that many non stick pans contain a chemical known as perfluorooctanoic acid that can cause cancer? There are traces of it in the lining of these pans. And if your non-stick pans are like ours they have scratches aplenty which means that even more of this chemical can seep into your food. Stainless steel pans are a great alternative.
Cleaning Products: When you are living with boys who are mess magnets, you may want to make sure your house is stocked with cleaning products, but some of the chemicals in these products can do more harm than good. Check the labels and avoid chemical ingredients such as phthalates and chemical surfactants. Good old-fashioned natural products like baking soda, vinegar, lemon and hot water can leave your surfaces clean and toxin free.
Sunscreens with oxybenzone: Researchers suggest that chemicals like oxybenzone, found in some sunscreens, may cause health problems when they penetrate the skin. The safest sunscreens are made from minerals such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, but they can be very expensive. In general, avoid aerosol spray sunscreens, which you can accidentally inhale, as well as sunscreens containing chemical ingredients such as oxybenzone, octinoxate, and retinyl palmitate (a form of vitamin A).
Learn more about this at everyday.com.