Deirdre Dolan

A critical hurdle was just cleared in California where the threat of raw milk becoming illegal (as it already is in many states) was looming. The Assembly Health Committee voted unanimously for SB 201, the Fresh Raw Milk Act of 2008. They are also close to passing legislation that will codify making it safe and legal, hopefully to be used as a template in other states.

I’m trying to think of inventive ways to make teeth brushing fun for my daughter (who at this point just wants to suck down the toothpaste) because I worry about her genetic inheritance in the teeth department. At one point in my life I probably had 25 silver fillings in my mouth. I remember when my old roommate had her amalgam fillings replaced-- she said she felt much “lighter” after, but I’ve never had the money or motivation to electively remove the mercury from my system. (In the left hand corner of my mouth, where my lips meet, there’s some purple-colored residual mercury under the skin. Pretty gross.)

Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Japan have all banned amalgam in fillings (composed of 40% mercury and a 60% silver, tin, copper, and zinc combo), but it’s still anything goes here. Lots of dentists have upgraded to resin composites or porcelain (only a couple of my silver-topped teeth remain), but amalgam’s cheaper and easier to deal with, and the American Dental Association (ADA) has always maintained that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with chomping on a neural toxin for years and years anway.

That is, until now.

Last week the Food and Drug Administration changed the language on its website from worry-free to more cautious, apparently because of this lawsuit. ...

One of my best friends recently told me to read The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid (#13,355 on Amazon) and see if I could get my hands on some raw milk. She’s the only person in the world who drinks and loves whole milk as much as I do (pretty much our favorite part of college was the all-you-can-drink milk spigot in the dining hall), so I got the book and starting looking looking for some milk to taste. She lives in California where it’s legal to buy and sell, but I live in Brooklyn (where it’s not) so I drove to the closest place to legally get it (Walter Stewart’s Market in New Canaan, Connecticut) and bought two half gallons. They both cost around five dollars – one from Deerfield Farm, and the other from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm.

I’ve always wondered why I like milk so much and lately my brother mentioned a theory that people crave what their bodies are allergic to. This made some sense to me because I have psoriasis, but to give up milk (which all psoriasis diets demand) is unfathomable. Milk makes me feel full and satisfied the way nothing else can. I’ve also heard anecdotal stories, like the lead of this Salon story about raw milk, about how it can solve skin issues and jump start your immune system into working the way it was meant to.

There’s a chapter in Schmid’s book (he’s a naturopathic physician) about something called "the milk cure" which uses raw milk medicinally, and about how what pasteurized milk exacerbates, raw milk heals. There was a big fuss at the turn of the 20th century over the pasteurized versus raw milk debate. Physicians who prescribed milk therapeutically were horrified at the idea of raw milk not being available anymore and so they formed an organization of doctors who pushed for what they called "Certified Milk." But ultimately because big business was behind pasteurization, they lost. For the best explanation of the traditional versus industrialized milk story read this essay by Lori Lipinski. The bottom line is that pasteurization (a process of heat treating milk to kill bacteria developed by Louis Pasteur for preserving beer and wine, not milk) not only kills friendly bacteria but also destroys the nutrient content of the milk. From Lipinski: “Pasteurized milk has up to a 66 percent loss of vitamins A, D and E. Vitamin C loss usually exceeds 50 percent. Heat affects water soluble vitamins and can make them 38 percent to 80 percent less effective. Vitamins B6 and B12 are completely destroyed during pasteurization. Pasteurization also destroys beneficial enzymes, antibodies and hormones. Pasteurization destroys lipase (an enzyme that breaks down fat), which impairs fat metabolism and the ability to properly absorb fat soluble vitamins A and D. (The dairy industry is aware of the diminished vitamin D content in commercial milk, so they fortify it with a form of this vitamin.”)

So, how does it taste? ...

I just got caught driving behind four massive trucks delivering pool water on the way to catch a train and it got me thinking about processed water and cooling off. It seems like there are so many invisible and odorless chemicals to be on the lookout for these days that super obvious ones like chlorine can get overlooked. It’s been used to clean up the water we drink, swim in and bathe in for so long because it’s cheap and very effective. But, whenever possible, it should be removed to avoid the trihalomethanes (THM) that are formed when it reacts with naturally occurring organic material in water -- and that are also suspected carcinogens.

At home, most of the chlorine in tap water is removable with a carbon carafe pitcher, and it’s of course very easy to replace conventional cleaners that contain it with greener versions, but swimming pools pose a bigger challenge. If you swim in a public pool you don’t have much control over exposure other than to steer clear of unventilated indoor ones (chlorine gases hover above the water and can damage lungs and cause asthma). If you’re thinking about putting in your own pool there are a number of companies inventing creative ways to sanitize water without chemicals. For $5,500 TechnoPure uses a low voltage DC current into a stream of water; DEL Ozone injects ozone gas into the water as it recirculates.

Yes, lots of companies are out there working on non-chlorine solutions for your pool, but the majority of people reading this are probably thinking about pools on a much smaller scale. This year I was unsuccessful finding a vinyl-free wading pool for my daughters to cool off in (if you’ve know of one do tell), and so I bought a hard plastic one at my local hardware store for $12.99 instead. The current thinking is that a soft vinyl PVC wading pool is likely to have more phthalates than a hard one, and thus the worse of two evils.

I’d love to hear about more creative solutions to trapping water to cool ourselves down. I just read some great comments from people in the south reminiscing about cooling off in whiskey barrels and the corrugated metal washing tubs of their childhoods on Grist. And since my older daughter loves to squeeze herself into small boxes and laundry baskets it made me realize she’d probably prefer cooling off in a small tub than in the one I bought her anyway.

If you have any other great ways to bring down your body temp please post. My husband and I are thinking about using an air conditioner for the first time this summer because we have small children who busily move their bodies around all day long, but we still haven’t installed it. Our secret to cooling down is to take an ice cold shower before bed and then stand in front of our commercial roll-around fan (used to cool an entire pharmacy in the Bronx forty years ago) until we have goosebumps. It takes some deep breaths to deal with standing in front of it at first, but it brings down your core temperature enough for sleep, a necessity with the 100 degrees in Brooklyn today.

A friend of mind just called to tell me that she happily, but unexpectedly, just found out she’s nearly three months pregnant. She wanted advice on how to get organic immediately because even if she hasn’t been all that organic up until now, she’d prefer to hedge the bets of her unborn child. In this column we talk about lots of specific organic parenting ideas, but I told her that the following eight things will cover the big picture and if she does them she’ll be able to catch up quick.

1. Food

Start eating whole foods (as close to how it came out of the earth as possible), paying attention to which items are more and less toxic. Meat is high on the food chain and therefore more toxic; vegetables are lower. For information on joining a community supported farm check out Local Harvest. Avoid packaged foods and try to eat a varied diet that includes plenty of protein, calcium, whole grains and folic acid. (Take a daily vitamin with folic acid as well to be sure you’re meeting the requirement.)

2. Water

Test the tap water at home for contaminants and deal with it – a Brita-style carbon carafe pitcher will take care of most issues. Stop drinking bottled water and carry your beverages in something safer like glass or stainless steel – there are great water bottles at SIGGand Klean Kanteen – to avoid chemical-leaching plastic, as well as help save some earth.

3. Air

You can’t always control what you’re breathing – the carpet at the bank or toxic bathroom cleaners at work – but wherever possible (in the car, at work, at home) open the windows and keep your environment as well-ventilated as possible. ...

The Independent newspaper reports on a new study that has found that mothers using cell phones can increase the risk of having kids with behavioral problems due to radiation exposure. While it's almost impossible to live without a cell these days (a huge ad for a cell phone company runs right alongside the online article), these findings may give pregnant women pause.

The study talked to the mothers of over 13,000 children in Denmark about their cell phone use during pregnancy, as well as their children’s use of them up to the age seven. It found that even using the handset as few as two or three times a day can raise the risk of their children having hyperactivity, as well as difficulty with conduct, emotions and relationships.

From the story:

"They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54% more likely to have children with behavioral problems and that the likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80% more likely to suffer from difficulties with behavior. They were 25% more at risk from emotional problems, 34% more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers, 35% more likely to be hyperactive, and 49% more prone to problems with conduct."

Apparently the results of this study surprised one of its authors, Leeka Kheifets (who had previously expressed doubt about the risks of cell phones) which could possibly legitimize it some. In terms of my own life I'll do what I can to keep calls short the next time I'm pregnant ...

Recently my co-blogger Lexy Zissu wrote about how she came to the decision to use gel-free disposable diapers. She followed up with a post aboutcloth diapers. Like many New Yorkers, she lives in an apartment without a washer/dryer and instead of swaddling her daughter in chlorine-heavy diaper-serviced cloth, she uses gel-free disposables [her post includes a variety of options but she prefers Tushies. I also used Tushies on my daughters until I moved into an apartment with laundry and was able to finally make the exciting move to cloth. Understanding the cloth diaper world required some trial and error, so to save you some of that expense here’s the skinny on what works best for me.

As Lexy mentioned, there are tons of Websites and online forums discussing cloth diapering, but they can be time consuming and confusing. I was at the Green Expo in New York a few weeks ago and booth after booth displayed soft, touchable, lovingly designed cloth diapers. I held their downy cotton between my fingers and was psyched I’d be buying some soon, but my car’s meter was about to run out and I knew it would take more than ten minutes to figure out what to get. If so many companies now make these beautiful diapers and so many women buy them, I knew they had to have simplified the process, I just needed to figure out how.

Turns out it’s not that confusing. Just avoid fitted diapers. They’re made of lovely fabrics that are often too gorgeous to ignore (Bamboozle, Little Beetle, Happy Hempy, but they’re useless without a diaper cover, an added step that hides their beauty anyway. Also, if it’s not you who will be changing all these diapers you want to try and make it as easy as possible on the people who are – babysitters, grandparents, husbands, etc. I put my 5 month-old in a Little Beetle fitted diaper and she leaked through to the mattress. When I tried it again with the diaper cover I found that the diaper was just too soaked. It can’t be comfortable or conducive to sleep, and since she’s prone to diaper rash I knew this would eventually lead to trouble.

So, here’s what I do recommend ...

If you’re thinking about doing any kind of renovations in your house, obviously, lead exposure should be seriously considered. The possibility of releasing toxic dust into the air is higher in a home built before 1978 (when the government banned lead-based paint in housing), and the turn of the century brownstone I live in most certainly has a few coats of lead paint on it. We rent, so we couldn’t renovate even if we wanted to, but a new study from researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center found that interior renovation of older housing is associated with a modest increase in children’s blood lead level (BLL) and associated long-term health risks. The study’s lead author and director is Adam Spanier, M.D., Ph.D. M.P.H., from the Pediatric Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. His co-author Stephen Wilson, M.D., from the Pediatric Academic Society (PAS), presented his findings in Honolulu over the weekend. ...

Springtime is ant season in Brooklyn and I'm dreading their arrival any day now. I've heard about trails of cayenne and citrus vinaigrettes that are supposed to get rid of them, but in my years in New York I've never seen a healthy approach work. It's hard to convince a landlord to spend the money on a non-toxic pest control, so this time last year we took the advice of an entomologist friend and defeated a major ant infestation without the use of any products containing organophosphates (which could interfere with the nervous system of a growing baby, infant or child, as well as cause headaches, depression and fatigue). ...

We moved this weekend and I went back to our old apartment yesterday to give it a cleaning -- the first thorough one first since giving up conventional cleaners. I used all-purpose sprays from Seventh Generation and Ecover, as well as some Bon Ami, and it was a nice change to finish a heavy duty clean without shredded fingers and a huge headache. I was particularly impressed with Earth Friendly Products non-chlorine bleach, Oxo-Brite, which turned my enamel sink whiter, even though it’s made for clothing.

Now that I’ve given up chlorine bleach it seems particularly obvious that it can’t be good for you ...

I think bad habits often begin as a way to avoid misery, so as relieved as I was to see her brighten up, I sensed a looming battle with pasta. There’s nothing wrong with pasta, but it’s refined and processed and not packed with nutrition. I investigated what’s out there in organic and whole wheat, and found there a number of alternatives that stick to her gut the way she clearly craves.

They include ...

Phthalates (a group of synthetic chemicals that act as a softening agent) have been getting more bad press lately. A recent article in the February issue of Pediatrics about how infants are exposed to phthalates in baby lotions, cream and wipes got me thinking. I’m moving to an apartment with a bigger kitchen in a few weeks and I’ll be able to set up a changing area close to the kitchen sink so that I can hold my daughters under the faucet instead of using wipes. A French pediatrician in lower Manhattan named Michel Cohen recommends this to all his new moms, and a friend of mine said it’s worked for her. "He calls it 'ze waterfall,'" she said. "It gets them way cleaner than wipes, and cuts down on diaper rash." ...

When it comes to buying new furniture I find the more information I have the harder it seems to be to make a decision about what’s completely safe. You can ask a million questions about how something is made, be assured that it includes no toxic glues or pressed wood, and then get it home and find it stinks to high heaven. ...

Phthalates are one of the most common pollutants out there and the more press they get the more paranoid I’m starting to feel about what they may or may not being doing to my young daughters. I can take some measures to keep them away from my 15 month-old – no rubber duckies in our tub – but after hearing about a recent study it’s actually the daughter who’s breastfeeding I’m really starting to worry about. ...

More dirty news to report about the clean industry. According to a report in Environmental Science and Technology, triclosan, an ingredient used widely as an antibiotic and preservative in personal care and cleaning products for the last 45 years, acts as an endocrine disruptor. This chemical amplifies the natural effects of hormones and exacerbates the effects of testosterone.

It can be found in lots of things you probably assume are safe ...