Raising our family, we "thought" we were eating healthy, living clean, using disinfecting cleaners to prevent germs & illness. What I didn't know then, was how TOXIC, I was making our home.
Now more things are made aware. Education is key to making informed choices & changes.
So, we've built our home, no carpets, no curtains, we live in the country and have shades between the glass in the windows. We have tile & real hard wood floors. We wanted to be "Green" for the Environment and less Toxic for our home & Family Health. So we have a home wind generator to produce most of our electricity (we're still on the grid for calm days) and I do my laundry & cleaning on windy days. We live in the country so we have drilled an 850 ft deep water well, tests great water, no run off toxins from local farm fields, no toxins added in water treatment plants. We have septic system (because of country location), and treat it monthly with bio-active natural product to eat waste, and have never had to have it pumped. We have a ground source heat pump system, no fuel, no propane, no natural gas. Energy efficient with 5 ground wells gives us winter warmth & summer cooling. We furnished the home with all new energy efficient appliances. We though we did our part, you'd think so, right?
Then I found this "partial" list of products made from Petroleum (144 of 6,000 items). ONE 42-Gallon Barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest (over half) is used to make things like... are you read? Do you think you're Toxic free? Do you think you've avoided everything possible especially petrochemical toxins? Guess what... HIGHLY unlikely when you read on you'll see...American's consume petroleum products at a rate of 3-1/2 gallons of oil and more than 250 cubic feet of natural gas per DAY EACH! But, as shown here Petroleum is not just used for fuel.
PERSONAL ITEMS:
Ink: copiers & pens, unless you only use pencils
Dresses & Clothing, Sweaters (if not 100% untreated cotton or wool) (anything synthetic)
Vitamin Capsules: most over the counter, big box store, however, we use only NeoLife nutritionals
Shampoo: so I've taken to making homemade, toxic free, using essential oils
Umbrellas
Hand Lotion
Nail Polish
Purses
Deodorant
Panty Hoses
Insect Repellent & INsecticides
Perfumes
Shoe Polish
Sun Glasses
Soap
Shoes
Hair Coloring
Lipstick
Cold Creame
Shaving Creame
Toothpaste
Golf Balls
In HOME:
Curtains (ok, we eliminated these with between glass blinds in windows)
Roofing: yes and we just added 50 yr shingles to our roof
Water Pipes: all homes have these
Vaporizers: even humidifiers and diffusers using essential oils
Upholstery
Percolators
Mops
Combs
Dishwasher parts
Caulking
Faucet washers
FOOD Preservatives & Dyes
TV Cabinets
Toilet Seats
Linoleum
Plastic wood
Rubber Cement
Candles
Luggage
CDs & DVDs
Pillows
Golf bags
Tool boxes
Petroleum Jelly
Shag Rugs
Epoxy
Fertilizer
Fishing Rods & Fishing Boots
Ice cube trays
Electric Blankets
Trash bags
Paint rollers & paint brushes
Awnings
Ice chests
Dishes
Folding doors
Transparent Tape
Refrigerant
Linings
Electricians Tape
Paint & House paint
Synthetic rubber
Glycerin
Shower curtains
Detergents
Cameras
Hair Curlers
Telephones
Cameras
Refrigerators
Movie Film
Drinking Cups
In VEHICLES:
Tires: all vehicles
Dashboards: Yes we have vehicles
Antifreeze: all vehicles have it, winterizing a camper
Bicycle Tires: Children, exercise
Motorcycle Helmets (and Bike Helmets)
Speakers
Diesel fuel
Sport Car Bodies (most vehicles are not metal bodies now)
Life Jackets (boats)
Car battery cases
Motor Oil
Parachutes
Bearing Grease
Oil Filters
Tents (camping)
Car Enamel
Fan Belts
Gasoline
CHILDREN ITEMS:
Putty
Tennis Rackets
Nylon rope
Guitar Strings
Balloons
Crayons
Football Helmets & Artificial Turf & football cleats & footballs
Model Cars
Basketballs
Roller skates
Dice
MEDICAL ITEMS: (Hope you never need these)
Denture's & Denture Adhesive
Toothbrushes
Heart Valves
Anesthetics
Antihistamines
Cortisone
Antiseptics
Rubbing Alcohol
Aspirin
Artificial limbs
Eyeglasses
Bandages
Safety Glasses (work)
Soft Contact Lenses
Ammonia
Can you HONESTLY< say that you can replace ALL Petroleum with Hemp, or Wind & Solar, or all Natural products TOTALLY? Highly unlikely as this list is only 144 of the 6,000 items made from Petroleum products, remembering it's more than 1/2 a barrel of oil is used for products and not fuels.
NOW, with all this to think about, yes by all means remove all items you financially can replace with toxic free--petroleum free products. Use natural woods, no plastics, change the home Green energy.
And with what remains, make your own homemade products (much cheaper) for Laundry soap, Shampoo, shaving cream, toothpaste. Consider Detoxing your body, detox bath, detox hair. Yes, my own hair dresser heard of detoxing your scalp. She had just attended a class on this, that our hair care products & even natural oils will clog pores and can cause hair loss among other conditions of the scalp. Detox regularly, I do this at least once a month now. I do detox bath at least once a week. And I do make homemade products, cleaners, laundry soap 4 gallons for $3 cost, only takes a few minutes. Even I could find more to do in removing toxins from our home. But the important thing, is to remove those we can control most, can live without most, and detoxify our body on a regular basis. Eat healthy, take quality nutritional supplements, exercise, plenty of quality sleep (8 hrs avg).
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