Does it ever end? Toxins, that is.

When we make the decision to clean up our environment, we think of the obvious....products we use on our skin, in our mouths and anything that might compromise the air we breath.  But what about all those little "touches" all day long?  For instance you don't think twice when you turn on your stove,  flick a switch to turn on a light, open and close the fridge, push down the tub drain in order to run a bath for your kiddo, open a file cabinet or a drawer...then close it.  We don't count how many times our hands touch something throughout the day that might be toxic.  You might think, geez, it's just a brief moment, do you really care about that?  Add it up!  Every day!  All day!  Now think about the materials everything around you is made of.  You will probably say, well, plastic, metal, whatever!

I plan to clear that up for you right now.  Thanks to a friend who gave me a list of XRF (x-ray fluorescence) testing results that were created by friends of hers in a mom's group, who rented an XRF gun, I have real solid evidence that will prove to you that it's not just "plastic" and "metal".  Instead, think along the lines of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead among many other toxins.  And guess what?  It's just these things that we touch here and there every day that are made of the most toxic stuff! 

Of course, we aren't going to start wearing gloves around the house all day, heck, they are probably just as toxic, lol, but this certainly has me thinking more about what I buy and what I plan to use it for.  In fact, those handy little "safe" stainless steel cups you think are saving your kids from BPA, what about, if you knew you could be replacing the BPA with high levels of cadmium and sometimes even lead!!  Yikes!!  In particular, CVS brand stainless steel water bottles which were in the red for lead!

Some of THE most toxic things in our homes are: crock pots, knobs, drawer pulls and door handles, tile, mirrors, stainless steel anything, trampolines (so glad I decided against that one), luggage,  lamps and one of the most disturbing for me...all the parts of a faucet including the piece inside the tub where your child sits and soaks - MERCURY, LEAD, ARSENIC and CADMIUM, in the red!  Delta seems to be at the top of that list.  Another disturbing mercury source is your child's Nintendo 64.  IKEA seems to be on this list a lot too.

Why is illness on the rise...do we really wonder why?  Look around you!!  Better yet, look at some of these fabulous lists I'm honored to be able to share with you!  I wish I could add them all, but I know it's very hard to read anyway.  I chose many of the more telling pages.  Thank you Angela!  =)