As parents, we consider many factors when selecting a childcare situation for our children – among them cost, convenience, philosophy, hours and the ratio of caregivers to kids. But how many of us give a thought to environmental health? We should, because young children’s developing bodies are very susceptible to chemical exposures.

To make it a little easier, Environmental Working Group put together these tips on how to create a green childcare environment, with an emphasis on the steps that matter most. We’re all about strategic changes that make the biggest difference to kids’ health. Parents can use these tips to assess childcare facilities – and share the downloadable tip sheet with staff to help them create a greener space. Remember, a few simple actions can reduce many exposures to toxic chemicals. Why not start today with this great list?

Most important for infants:

Mix formula with fluoride-free water, as the American Dental Association recommends. If your tap water has fluoride, buy non-fluoridated water.

Don’t serve ready-to-eat formula – it contains more BPA (from the can lining).

Never microwave food or heat milk in plastic. Use glass or ceramic instead.

Use glass or BPA-free baby bottles. Discard older plastic ones, especially if scratched.

Use fragrance-free wipes, diapers & diaper cream.

Create a healthy space

Seal or remove arsenic-treated wood decks & play structures. Those built before 2003 likely contain arsenic. Don’t allow children to eat at older picnic tables (or cover them with a cloth).

Have kids wash hands after playing near these surfaces, or avoid them altogether.

Watch for lead paint. Older paint may contain lead. Kids face health risks from loose chips and lead in dust. If your building was built before 1978, use a certified lead-safe contractor for any repairs.

Don’t use bug spray or weed killer inside or out.

Clean greener & disinfect when kids aren’t around. Choose certified green cleaning supplies, dust & vacuum often (with a HEPA filter), use fragrance-free laundry detergent and skip air fresheners & dryer sheets. Disinfectants can be toxic. Where necessary, disinfect with safer peroxide-based products or bleach. Always follow product directions.

Remove or repair furniture & mattresses with exposed foam. Before 2005, most foam was treated with toxic fire retardants.

Take care with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Don’t put them in lamps that can fall, releasing mercury. If a bulb breaks, clear the room, air it out, put on gloves, safety glasses and a dust mask, seal the waste, wash up. Replace mercury thermometers & thermostats with mercury-free options.

Eating & drinking

Offer healthy snacks. Choose fruits & veggies from EWG’s Clean 15 list or buy organic – and always wash them. Don’t microwave food in plastic. Microwave popcorn bags contain toxic chemicals – try air-popping instead. Choose organic dairy and meat when possible; buy rBGH/hormone-free milk. Use BPA-free dishware.

Wash little hands before eating – with plain soap & water. Skip anti-bacterial soaps – they’re no better than plain soap and contain toxic triclosan. If you use alcohol-based hand sanitizers, choose fragrance-free.

Drink safer water. Filter tap water as needed to remove contaminants. Check EWG’s Tap Water Database to find an effective filter. Test water fountains for lead.

Playtime!

Avoid soft plastic toys & metal jewelry. Many plastic softeners are toxic. Choose items labeled PVC- and phthalate-free. Avoid metal trinkets and play jewelry, which can contain heavy metals. Skip face paint unless you know it’s free of lead and other contaminants. Natural, unpainted wood toys are a good choice.

Use safer art supplies. Don’t use rubber cement, permanent or dry-erase markers or materials meant for adults. Stick with paper/cardboard, yarn, wood & homemade play dough. If you don’t know what’s in something, skip it.

Apply safer sunscreen. Use EWG’s Sunscreen Guide to find ones with SPF 30+ and zinc or titanium. Skip oxybenzone, retinyl palmitate, sprays, added bug repellent. Wear hats & avoid mid-day sun.

Adjust outdoor play based on local air quality using AIRNow.gov. On high pollution days, limit high-energy outdoor play for kids, especially those with asthma.

Another resource for parents and care providers is the national eco-healthy childcare program, which helps childcare facilities shift to safer practices through a self-certification system.

As most parents know, childhood asthma is on the rise. In fact, 1 in 10 American kids now develops this chronic health condition during childhood. If your child is fortunate enough to be asthma-free, chances are she or he has at least one school or daycare buddy with the disease.

And it’s not just kids. Turns out teachers also suffer significantly higher rates of this life-threatening condition. So as researchers and children’s health advocates at Environmental Working Group, we wanted to know whether the cleaning supplies used in schools might have something to do with this trend, since they’re a common source of indoor air contaminants.

The Bad News First: Common school cleaners dirty the classroom air To better understand the potential link between asthma and school cleaners, we ordered up sophisticated air pollution tests for 21 common school cleaning products. These tests showed that as a group, these 21 products release into the air no fewer than 457 distinct chemicals. 457! And six of them are known to cause asthma in otherwise healthy people.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by these results: Studies of folks who clean for a living find increasing evidence that asthma developed on the job is often linked to exposure to common cleaning supplies. Cleaning products can also trigger an asthma attack.

EWG’s tests found chemicals in cleaners that are associated with even more disturbing health problems. Eleven are known, probable or possible human carcinogens. We also detected reproductive toxins, neurotoxins and hormone disrupters in commonly used cleaning supplies.

As it happens, it’s not just the cleaners used in schools. Some of the products we had tested are also under the sink in millions of American homes. One of them, Comet Disinfectant Powder Cleanser, released 143 contaminants into the air – including formaldehyde, benzene, chloroform and four others that California has formally identified as causers of cancer or reproductive problems. Yuck.

It only makes sense to keep noxious chemicals out of the air wherever young (and not-so-young) children spend a lot of time. Students who stay after school for extra-curricular activities probably get an extra dose of cleaning pollutants since custodians often do a lot of their work after classes let out. Because children’s developing bodies are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals, schools rank high on our list of places that should be free of preventable, lung-damaging air pollution.

The Good News: There are effective greener alternatives EWG’s study also looked at “certified green” cleaning products to see if they were less likely to release potentially harmful contaminants. Independent organizations that review products according to health-based standards (Green Seal and EcoLogo) had given them high marks. Both in individual product tests and in simulated classroom cleaning situations where we compared them with conventional cleaners, the certified green supplies emitted fewer toxic chemicals.

Overall, cleaning a classroom with conventional cleaners emitted six times more air contamination (measured as volatile organic compounds) than cleaning with green cleaners. Six times!! But EWG’s tests showed that even some products certified as green had undesirable emissions, indicating that the certification process isn’t airtight.

What’s a parent to do? Advocate for change, of course! It’s easy, and the arguments are compelling. Check back tomorrow when we’ll discuss the best ways to talk to your school or daycare provider about switching to safer, certified green cleaning options.

A contagious skin infection that was once thought of as primarily limited to hospitals, prisons, and nursing homes is now showing up in healthy children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These skin infections are caused by tough-to-treat bacteria called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA, or resistant staph). As the name implies, antibiotics are not always effective at treating the infections, especially once they have spread too far in the body.

Most of these infections are mild, but some do progress to become extremely serious. They typically start out looking like a simple pimple, boil, or infected wound, but they might start to worsen with symptoms such as fever, pus, swelling, or pain. Rugby and RugratsRecently a rugby team shared this rash.

The biggest clusters of MRSA infections in children have been among students involved in competitive sports (such as fencing or football) where they might share equipment, or in sports (such as football or wrestling) where they have skin-to-skin contact. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) sent out a warning letter about MRSA to its members on October 14, 2003.

Although high school athletes have been the biggest focus of concern, high school students and athletes are not the only children at risk. Daycare – A Contact Sport with Shared EquipmentParents, kids, coaches – and yes, also daycare workers – should be aware of the possibility of serious skin infections and be on the lookout for any worsening skin problems.

The CDC recommends a number of measures for preventing MSRA infections, including attention to hand hygiene (use soap and water or alcohol based instant hand sanitizers), cleaning shared equipment (towels, helmets, or toys), covering cuts and scrapes with protective bandages until healed, covering possible infections with bandages, excluding from play those whose wounds or infections cannot be covered, and reporting to a healthcare provider any wound that is slow to heal or that appears infected.

“I’m sorry, but your child can’t come back to daycare until she starts antibiotics.” Statements like this led to a study that was published in the February 2000 issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. The report concluded that directors of child care centers, in their wonderful efforts to protect children, often exclude sick children unnecessarily, refer children to physicians inappropriately and request antibiotic therapy for children who would be better off without them.

The great majority of daycare directors, for instance, believe that antibiotics should be given to children with bronchitis, and that excluding kids with cough and green nasal discharge will decrease the spread of colds. Childcare workers deserve better education about the basics of dealing with children who have common respiratory infections.