Are Chemicals In Your Home Aging You?

Four Ways to Reduce Unwanted Chemicals in Your Home

There is a company that has always been about creating products in harmony with nature, whether that product is a multivitamin, shampoo, toothpaste, or a household cleaner. (Click here to learn about their decades long commitment to the environment.) Changing brands is a significant move you can make to reduce the level of toxins and unwanted chemicals you and your family are exposed to everyday. (See what toxic products you can replace with effective, economical, non-toxic alternatives.)

Here are four Shaklee action steps you can do to greatly reduce your chemical exposure in the home.

1. Replace common household and laundry cleaning products with a line of non-toxic cleaners. An easy way to do that in one fell swoop is to order the Starter Special Edition Kit. This is the same kit that Oprah loves and gave to all her audience during Shaklee’s first appearance on her show. And during the month of November, you can save a whopping 33% off on the Special Edition kit! Click here for more information or to order it online.
2. Replace common personal care products with healthier alternatives. Popular toothpaste, deodorants, shampoos and body lotions all contain chemicals that accumulate in your body through your skin. In fact, check the warning label on your current toothpaste – it tells you to keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age! You won’t find that warning on organic dentifrice toothpaste or other non-toxic personal care products - all of which are free from toxic chemicals & safe for you and your family. Click here for a list of non-toxic personal care products.
3. Add a water filtration unit to your home. There are well over two thousand contaminants found in U.S. drinking water since 1974, and most municipalities only test for a small fraction of those contaminants. Plus water treatment plants add chemicals to treat drinking water - like aluminum, chlorine and sodium. In addition to treating the water, contamination can also occur from lead in water pipes and/or bacteria and dirt from leaky pipes.
   
   The best way to stop the inflow of chemicals and contaminants in your water is at the faucet itself. Water filtration units can be found to fit any budget that effectively remove chemicals and contaminants at the tap. All water filtration units will save you money over bottle water, not to mention that you won’t have to lug bottled water from the store! You'll also be putting less plastic into the landfill. You’ll also appreciate the convenience of at home water filtration. Click here for more information on water filtration units.
4. Get an air purification unit for the home. If anyone in your family suffers from allergies, asthma or other respiratory difficulties, consider getting an air purification unit for your home. Look for a dual-patented unit covering an amazing 3000 sq feet, with no filters to clean and no loud noises as it purifies the air in your home. It’s a technological marvel that looks like a piece of art and has been clinically proven to reduce all form of indoor contaminants including chemicals and gases, mold, odors, smoke, particles, pollen and bacteria. There is a mobile unit that is a handy air purifier for travelers, commuters, offices or small spaces up to 300 square feet. Click here for more information on air purification units.

What You Can Do for Your Child's Asthma?

May is Asthma awareness month. Asthma is increasingly common among children and teens. In fact, it's the most common serious chronic childhood disease. 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma. Rates in children under five have increased more than 160% from 1980-1994!

Children are highly vulnerable to chemical toxicants. Pound for pound of body weight, children drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air than adults. The implication of this is that children will have substantially heavier exposures than adults to any toxicants that are present in water, food or air.

An asthma attack is triggered by small particles in the air, things like mold, dust mites, secondhand smoke, pollen, bugs like cockroaches, even cats and dogs. Then there are common household cleaners which give off fumes that have been linked to increasing the risk of your kids developing asthma. (Read more about common household toxins.)

Asthma can't be cured, but it can be dramatically helped by getting rid of triggers that can lead to an asthma attack. Here are a few smart things you can do.

1. Change out your everyday toxic household cleaners to a line of natural, nontoxic, cleaners. Purchase a starter kit to get started.
2. Don't smoke in your home or car. Don't let anyone smoke near your child.
3. Keep cockroaches away by keeping counters, sinks, tables and floors clean. Cover trashcans and store food in airtight containers.
4. Keep pets outside if possible, or if you have a pet inside, try to keep them out of the child's bedroom and off the furniture.
5. Keep dust mites down by washing bed sheets and blankets weekly, vacuum carpets, rugs and furniture often, and washed stuff toys regularly and dry completely. You may want to consider removing carpets in favor of hard surfaces.
   
6. Get children on a good nutrition program. Lots of children with asthma and allergies have responded well to this nutritional regimen:
• quality children's multivitamin
  
• nutritious protein shakes. (Here are some fun and delicious ways to add children’s health products to your children's diet! Start their day with a healthy and refreshing smoothie.)
  
• additional vitamin C
  
• carotenoids
• alfalfa
  
• maintain a healthy digestive balance with probiotics
  
• natural immune system booster
  
7. Consider purchasing an air purifier to dramatically reduce, mold, dust mites, pollen, smoke and particulates and other indoor irritants from the air your child breathes. Although this air purifier cleans the air in your home up to 3000 sq feet, it's small enough to be carried anywhere in your home. So when you first get the unit place it on a table or dresser near your child's bed. Remove all coverings, sheets and pillowcases, and let it treat the food source of dust mites! Do the same in the bathroom, basement or garage to get rid of mold and mildew. Contact us for more information on this amazing air cleaner.

You are not powerless against asthma! Act now to provide a safe, healthy environment for your child. Build his body and immune system.

How Safe is Your Drinking Water?

Everyone knows that water is essential to life. Unfortunately, today's water supply leaves much to be desired. Below are some of the problems with the water today:

The problem with tap water:

• 2,110 contaminants found in U.S. drinking water since 1974.
• Most city municipalities only test for 22 contaminants.
• 8 out of 10 Americans live near a toxic waste site.
• 3 out of 4 waste treatment plants are not able to stop industrial toxic chemicals from polluting the water. --EPA
• Water treatment plants add up to 47 chemicals to treat drinking water such as aluminum, chlorine, and sodium.
• People who drink chlorinated water have 43% higher risk of bladder cancer. -- National Cancer Institute
• Contamination after water treatment comes from lead and asbestos contaminated pipes; plus bacteria and dirt from leaky pipes. -- EPA

The problem with Bottled Water:

• Standards for bottled water are the same as tap water. No guarantee of improved quality.
• Cancer causing chemicals have been found in water stored in plastic containers. --Dept. of Health
• High bacteria count has been found in bottled water, including fecal coliforms. --EPA

Your body, mainly your kidneys, are the filters removing the lead, particles and chemicals found in water today, whether they come from industrial pollution, or from the chemicals put in the water to negate the pollution. But rather than having your body be the filter, why not buy a filter that purifies your water at the tap?

Purifying your water at the tap is the best way of assuring good, clean water. Our line of water purifiers offer options to fit every budget, from the easy-to-use and inexpensive pitcher carafe, to the Consumer Digest excellent-rated high volume, advanced carbon filtration system, to the unparalleled water quality of the reverse osmosis system. All units provide you with a reliable way to get pure, clean water from your tap. These units also save you money over bottled water and free you from the inconvenience of having to lug bottled water from the store.

We invite you to learn more about our complete line of water filtration units.

Doing our part to keep our planet clean

This is a special time of the year for us. We are very dedicated environmentalist and Earth Day is important to us. We like to take take Earth Day as a day to take stock of our commitment to doing our part to keep our planet healthy and clean. Remember if we foul up planet Earth there are no emergency exits for us to use!

In his testimony before congress, Al Gore advised lawmakers to cut carbon dioxide and other warming gases 90 percent by 2050 to avert a crisis. Doing that, he said, will require a ban on any new coal-burning power plants, a major source of industrial carbon dioxide, that lack state-of-the-art controls to capture the gases.

"There is a sense of hope in this country that this United States Congress will rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis," he said. "Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination."

What do you believe? Will you rise to the occasion and to do your part?

Home Green Home
The Buck Stops Here

Global warming. It’s the buzz word making the rounds. There are movies about it, political positions on it, organizations working to stop it and we go about our daily lives as if we can’t have an impact on it as individuals. We say the environmental buck stops here … with each of us.

Rather than wait and look to governments and corporations to “do something about it”, how about setting an example individually? Historically, significant change was not brought about by businesses and governments, but by individuals committed to doing the right thing just because it was.

As Margaret Mead said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has”.

So how can we as individuals have any impact? Considering that over half of the world’s pollution is sourced from households, each of us collectively can make a difference.

Here are a few ideas.

1. Plant a tree! Trees increase levels of oxygen in the air and filter out pollutants we produce.
2. Replace a light bulb! Exchange the incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent one. They last 10 times longer and use only one-fourth of the energy compared to incandescent light bulbs.
3. Recycle! Recycling lessens the amount of waste that goes into landfills and reduces the amount of toxic chemicals absorbed into the earth.
4. Visit a Farmer’s Market! Buy locally produced foods instead of goods that must be trucked in.
5. Remember that each year Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups. Even 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup you used this morning will be sitting in a landfill!
6. Use non-toxic, biodegradable cleaners to clean your home. Just one of our starter kits is the equivalent of planting 10 trees, eliminates 108 lbs. of packaging wastes in landfills and 248 lbs. of greenhouse gas emissions. Bonuses are it saves you money and time. We make it easy to get rid of all those undesirable cleaners you may have in your home in one full swoop. One starter kit makes the equivalent cleaning power of:
   
   60 bottles of Fantastik
   32 bottles of Mop and Glo
   728 bottles of Windex
   1 Bottle of Woolite
   1 Container of Clorox Wipes
   1 Bottle of Soft Scrub
   2.5 Boxes of Cascade
   2 Boxes of Tide
   3 Bottles of Downy
   1 box of Bounce
   
   You'd have to spend more than $3,400 to get the same amount of clean! With a starter kit, you have an easy way to create a toxic-free home without sacrificing cleaning performance. In fact, the products in the starter kit were proven to outclean 11 national brands. If you don't think our non-toxic, biodegradable products work better than what you're using now, the company will refund your money for the cost of the products.
   

Please visit our educational site dedicted to environmentally friendly, effective and economical cleaners. Remember, only you decide how to spend you money. Please let us know if we can be of help.

Make Each Day Earth Day

Home Green Home

The Buck Stops Here

Global warming. It’s the buzz word making the rounds. There are movies about it, political positions on it, organizations working to stop it and we go about our daily lives as if we can’t have an impact on it as individuals. I say the environmental buck stops here … with each of us.

Rather than wait and look to governments and corporations to “do something about it”, how about setting an example individually? Historically, significant change was not brought about by businesses and governments, but by individuals committed to doing the right thing just because it was.

As Margaret Mead said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has”.

So how can we as individuals have any impact? Considering that over half of the world’s pollution is sourced from households, each of us collectively can make a difference.

Here are a few ideas.

1. Plant a tree! Trees increase levels of oxygen in the air and filter out pollutants we produce.
2. Replace a light bulb! Exchange the incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent one. They last 10 times longer and use only one-fourth of the energy compared to incandescent light bulbs.
3. Recycle! Recycling lessens the amount of waste that goes into landfills and reduces the amount of toxic chemicals absorbed into the earth.
4. Visit a Farmer’s Market! Buy locally produced foods instead of goods that must be trucked in.
5. Remember that each year Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups. Even 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup you used this morning will be sitting in a landfill!
6. Buy fair trade products and certified wood.
   
7. Use biodegradable, non-toxic cleaners to clean your home. Just one This Starter Kit is the equivalent of planting 10 trees, eliminates 108 lbs. of packaging wastes in landfills and 248 lbs. of greenhouse gas emissions. Bonuses are it saves you money and time.

To learn more visit our educational site.

Is your home really safe and healthy?

Listen to a discussion about Debunking Healthy Home Myths.
This 18 minute discussion covers:

• Are familiar products really safe for our families? Have ingredients been tested for safety?
• If it smells good, it's good for you, right?
• Are new homes healthier than old homes?
• Is cotton always healthier than synthetic blends?
• Why are women who work at home more at risk of cancer?
• Is whiter than white clean and healthy?
• Are candles a safe and healthy way of lighting our homes?
• Is dry cleaning safe?
• Does "green" = healthy?
• How can we help promote healthier homes?

Additional Information:

Read an informative pamphlet on our safe, powerful and economical household cleaners.

Learn more about biodegradable cleaners at our educational site.

Buy our biodegradable, nontoxic cleaners.

Also visit our educational sites:
www.getgreencleaners.com
www.ok-story.com
www.pjstory.com

Health, like charity, begins at home.

Non-Toxic cleaning products garner excitement

Rave Review of Non-Toxic Cleaners at www.ecofabulous.com

Ecofabulous.com is an environmentally focused blog written by green expert Zem Joaquin - and she recently included a very favorable review of the our Starter Kit. " While cleaning products don't usually garner excitement, I was downright giddy when I got a delivery from Shaklee." Joaquin stated.

Joaquin is no ordinary consumer of non-toxic cleaning products. She is certified by Builditgreen as a green building professional, has an eco-consultancy business and is green editor for House and Garden -- in addition to her musings on www.ecofabulous.com.

"Like other Shaklee products, Fresh Laundry contains no phosphates, nitrates, borates, or dyes and is safe for septic systems and greywater applications. Even more thrilling is receiving the refills to the starter kit - the waste factor has really been reduced. These products are the real deal and can be purchased without becoming a member or signing up for something more than merely cleaning house. " Joaquin also noted.

Read the entire review at www.ecofabulous.com

Find these non-toxic, effective, economical cleaners.

Don't wait for the government. Make a differnce now!

Did you know that the biggest polluter is the home? Find out how you can make a world of difference both in your health and the health of the planet by simply changing brands. Stop pouring toxic cleaners into the sewers and into your body.

Explore the ramifications of your shopping choices at www.getgreencleaners.com

Is Your Resolution To Be More Environmentally Proactive?

Most people are concerned about the environment and the effects of Co2 on global warming, and want to do their part to help. The frustration is in what can one person or one family do? As an environmental leader for 50 years, and the first company in the world to be certified climate neutral, Shaklee has made it easy for you and your family to become more environmentally proactive by going green with biodegradable cleaners.

The starter kit replaces many toxic cleaners in your home with better performing, longer lasting, and more economical, green alternatives. So now you can go Green while not giving up cleaning performance and save money in the process! With the purchase of a starter kit you eliminate 108 pounds of packaging waste from landfills, and 248 pounds of greenhouse gases. Purchasing a starter kit is the equivalent environmental impact of planting 10 trees!


More information on the contents of the starter kit.

Find green cleaners.

Figure out the Co2 generated by your use of fossil fuels and help offset your environmental impact.

What's under your sink?

We believe home should be the safest place in the whole world. What do you believe?

The Facts:

• 9 out of 10 poison exposures are suspected to be from household products.
• 75,000 that's the number of registered chemicals, only a fraction of which have been tested for human health concerns.

Look under your sink right now. Pick a cleaner, any cleaner. Does it contain chlorine, phenol, ammonia, or formaldehyde? These—and more—may be toxic. Toxic as in dangerous, as in hurtful, as in not very clean at all. Home is no place for stuff like that. So start by getting rid of those troublemakers. Responsibly, of course. Then call in green, non-toxic cleaners. When you welcome non-toxic cleaners into your home, none of those hazardous things come with it. So be sure you're letting in products that care as much about your family's safety as you do.

Perform a toxic audit of your home. Find out what harmful toxins are threatening your family.