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February 02, 2025

Banned in Europe, But in Your Food: What You Should Know About U.S. Additives

February 02, 2025/ Kelly Pemberton

If you’re living in the United States, you’re likely to be eating food that contains chemicals that have been banned in Europe and other parts of the world. This is true even if you follow a “healthy” diet. Food safety regulations differ globally, but generally speaking, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is a lot more cautious than the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when it comes to approving chemicals for human consumption.

December 09, 2024

10 Healthy Habits for Reducing Chemical Exposure: Sustainable Living Tips for Families

December 09, 2024/ Kelly Pemberton

In a world filled with countless products and conveniences, you're likely seeking ways to reduce chemical exposure daily. Many everyday items contain substances that can affect your health and the environment. Adopting healthy habits enables you to make significant strides toward a more sustainable and chemical-free lifestyle.

November 01, 2023

Ensuring Chemical Safety in Food Packaging: Migration Testing for Sustainability and Health

November 01, 2023/ Kelly Pemberton

Food packaging testing involves testing of any packaging material that contains food items. Food packaging testing helps manufacturers ensure that the packaging on their food items is functional, and of course, safe – for both people and the environment.

November 28, 2022

How is formaldehyde exposure affecting your health?

November 28, 2022/ Kelly Pemberton

Back in 2015, a predictable public outrage and panic followed the "60 Minutes" report that blamed Lumber Liquidators for offering laminate flooring, manufactured in China, that was tainted with larger-than-permitted levels of formaldehyde. The company immediately went into damage control mode, offering buyers free home air quality test kits among other things. Many people who purchased the tainted products wondered whether the flooring had already done irreparable harm to their health.

October 23, 2022

5 Ways to Prevent Weeds Without Using Pesticides

October 23, 2022/ Kelly Pemberton

Weeds are a problem for many homeowners, especially homeowners with gardens. They can take over your lawn, and make your driveway or pavement look messy. In the garden, these unwanted plants compete with nutrients needed by your flowers and crops, can destroy the health of your soil, contribute to the spread of mold spores and diseases, and take over your garden bed if left unchecked.

January 04, 2018

DDT was banned long ago, so why is it still affecting your health?

January 04, 2018/ Kelly Pemberton

The New Year always encourages us to look ahead to the (hopefully brighter) future, but sometimes moving ahead means reconciling with the past. The lingering presence of DDT, and its continued effects on the health of the environment and, really, most of us, is one stark reminder of how harmful practices of the recent past continue to threaten lives in the present.

September 23, 2017

What You Should Know about Radon Poisoning

September 23, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

(updated November 14, 2022)

Guest post by propertEco

A killer might be lurking in your house: no, it is not a person, but an invisible odorless and colorless gas known as radon. Radon gas is formed when the uranium that is naturally present in the ground decays. The gas that travels to the surface of the earth is called Radon.

April 16, 2017

Natural Bathroom Cleaning Tips→

April 16, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

guest post from Erica Garlands, with slideshow by Modern Bathroom

(this is the first post in a 3-part series on Green Cleaning)

Did you know that there are 150 chemicals found in the home that are connected to allergies, birth defects, cancer and physiological disorders? And most of these chemicals are found in bathroom-cleaning products! Bathrooms are high traffic rooms, and obviously need to be kept clean due to the high level of germs that can collect in bathrooms. There are many cleaning options available to us, many containing harmful products, but there are ways to effectively clean by only using natural ingredients. Some of these natural ingredients include grapefruit, lemons, salt, and baking soda.

March 05, 2017

What Everyone Needs to Know about Arsenic in Rice

March 05, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

Exposure to arsenic is a growing global health problem, but there’s a lot that scientists and health workers still don’t know about the extent to which it is affecting the health of vulnerable populations.

What exactly is arsenic, and how does it affect your health? Is there anything you can do to reduce your exposure to arsenic in rice and other food you eat? These are a few of the questions that this week’s blog post aims to answer.

November 05, 2016

Lifestyle choices and the cancer connection: what you should know

November 05, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

Almost half of all Americans suffer from chronic health ailments; among these, cancer is second leading cause of death, after heart disease. Although screening and treatment options, as well as a reduction in smoking, have improved the survival odds for many different kinds of cancer, including the 4 most common kinds: lung, colorectal, breast, and lung, the numbers are still high. Over 595,000 Americans are expected to die from cancer in 2016, which translates into over 1600 people per day...

There's no foolproof way to completely eliminate your risk of developing cancer, but there are several ways to decrease your chances. These begin with making the kinds of lifestyle choices that will ensure that your immune system has the strength it needs to keep your body healthy and fight disease effectively.

October 15, 2016

10 Ways that Endocrine Disruptors are Screwing up your Health

October 15, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

We are all exposed to endocrine disruptors like BPA, dioxin, lead, arsenic, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals. Here's a list of what they can do to the human body and the environment, along with a resource to help you minimize your exposure to these harmful synthetic chemicals.

March 17, 2016

Are BPA-free plastics still poisoning you?

March 17, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

In my book on toxic chemicals, I wrote about the health effects of Bisphenol-A (BPA) as being pervasive: this chemical compound, found in plastics and even in some cash register receipts, has been linked to problems with metabolism, behavior, reproduction, the development of placentas and stem cells, and the growth of cancerous tumors. BPA has been blamed (at least in part) for obesity, diabetes, asthma, infertility, and even…

August 26, 2015

Direct and Indirect Health Effects of Triclosan

August 26, 2015/ Kelly Pemberton

guest post by Audrey Lefebvre, R.N.

Triclosan is an antibacterial chemical added to most commercial cleaning products that target bacteria. As mentioned here, long-term use of Triclosan may cause a disruption in the endocrine system. The direct and indirect effects of triclosan are important to understand for a healthier and sustainable lifestyle. The concept of “antibacterial” is particularly useful in a critical healthcare setting, but what happens when we over use this chemical in the comfort of our homes and our hormone levels are altered?

April 04, 2015

Formaldehyde: the hype and the facts

April 04, 2015/ Kelly Pemberton

There was a predictable panic that followed a "60 Minutes" report that blamed Lumber Liquidators for offering laminate flooring, manufactured in China, which was tainted with larger-than-permitted levels of formaldehyde. While the company continues to do damage control, in part by offering buyers free home air quality test kits, many people who have purchased the tainted products have wondered whether the flooring has already done irreparable harm to their health. Formaldehyde is a known cancer-causing agent, and little bodies (which may like to squirm and crawl or lay on the floor) are especially vulnerable to its toxic effects.

In cases like these, it’s a good idea to separate the hype from the facts and think about the real risks, and what you can do about them, if you fear that you may have been exposed. And most likely, you and your children have already been exposed to formaldehyde many times over, even if you never purchased tainted laminate floors from Lumber Liquidators. That’s because formaldehyde is already in a lot of the ordinary, indispensable things that are in, or on your house, or on your body.

February 22, 2014

The Chemicals We Don’t Know: is West VA’s Chemical Spill Just The Tip Of The Iceberg?

February 22, 2014/ Kelly Pemberton

Five and a half weeks after a chemical spill in West VA and we still don’t know much about the chemical, Crude MCHM, that has alarmed officials in the state and increasingly, across the country. What little we do know gives a false sense of security: used to process coal, MCHM is made up almost entirely of the chemical called 4-methylcyclohexanemethol. It is listed in the Toxnet chemical database of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a skin, eye, and respiratory system irritant. The CDC conducted a study that recommended 1ppm (part per million) for safe levels of MCHM in drinking water (as of a week ago, the group Appalachian Voices’ Appalachian Water Watch reported that levels of MCHM just near the site of the spill was 1.130 ppm).

This recommendation, and the implication that it MCHM is now undergoing intense evaluation, may be giving some people a false sense of security...