Environmental Health
Earth Hour Bonus
Last night for Earth Hour we celebrated with candle light dinner and s'mores over a fire in our outdoor fire pit. The pit is completely enclosed, so we left the fire to burn itself out. To our surpris…
Top Ten Air-Filtering Plants
In an effort to identify plants that can filter air in sealed environments, NASA spent 2 years testing common plants to determine the best natural filters. The following list includes plants that perf…
Bringing the Outdoors In
I love it when I hear television interior designers talk about "bringing the outdoors in" and greening up a home with houseplants. Decorating your house with lush green plants does so much more than s…
Plastic and Puberty
A new study has shown that brief exposures to bisphenol A (BPA) early in life can have a long lasting effect on reproductive hormones. BPA is a common ingredient in some plastics and resins that has b…
New Regulations for Phthalates in Toys
Parents in California had more cause for celebration this New Year's Day as we welcomed a new regulation that keeps our kids safer. In California now, the toys and products we buy for our children can…
Chemicals in Your Environment
Parents are often surprised when I tell them that a great number of the products we use in our homes are not necessarily evaluated and declared safe by a government entity. The paints that cover your …
BPA and the AAP
Like other pediatricians across the United States, today I received an E-Breaking News Alert from the American Academy of Pediatrics concerning news about bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in many ha…
Willie Nelson: Potatoes from his Past, Farmers for our Future
Dr. Greene's recap of Willie Nelson at Farm Aid... Abbott, Texas, where his family grew some of their own food in a small garden. He sees the local community model from his childhood as a workable sol…
BPA: Clearing Through the Clutter
There is an intense ongoing debate about the safety of bisphenol ?A, or BPA, an ingredient found in many plastic products including many baby bottles and reusable water bottles. It acts like a hormone…
Frances Moore Lappe
Frankie Moore Lappe is a dear friend and one of my heroes. Her groundbreaking book Diet for a Small Planet has been called "the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the…
Dave Matthews
"Our planet will not sustain us if we continue living the way we are. It cannot." "People often say we must save the planet. The planet, in my opinion, will be fine. What we want to do is work with th…
Neil Young on Saving Family Farms
Neil Young got involved in Farm Aid at the very beginning, just to try to save family farms because, "they were dying on the vine." Today Farm Aid is far more than a benefit concert. And it is far mor…
Quality Organic Milk
Dr. Greene's take on quality organic milk... Since its founding in 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $30 million to support our family farmers. This year, Horizon Organic and Whole Foods Market were…
Eco-Friendly Baby
I pulled this ParentsTV video out of the vault of oldies, but goodies. In it, host Juli Auclare asks, "What parent doesn't love making choices that are not only healthy for their kids, but safe for th…
Artificial Turfs May Contain Lead
Dr. Greene's take on artificial turfs... Clothes worn on the field should be taken off and turned inside out as soon as possible after using the field to avoid tracking contaminated dust to other plac…
Carlo Petrini and Vandana Shiva
Delegates from over 70 countries gathered together under a huge white tent set up in Parco Novi Sad as the Congress began in earnest. Carlo Petrini is the founding father of the Slow Food Movement, wh…
Lunch in the Piazza
Cheryl and I returned to the storied Piazza Grande for a cappuccino. While we sat under an awning of the sidewalk cafe, exhilarating in the thousand-year-old architecture, we saw fellow Organic Center…
All Over Town
The throng in the big white tent in the Parco dispersed along the cobbled streets of the old city to 18 different Congress venues, in museums, universities, foundations, institutes, union halls, chamb…
Indoor Air Quality
Creating a healthy home by reducing toxins and improving indoor air quality can have a direct effect on whether your child develops asthma. And in families already affected by the condition (as many a…
Opening Ceremony
A crowd from around the world gathered in the Piazza Grande in Modena Italy. Against an architectural backdrop of thousand-year-old buildings, with cobblestones beneath our feet and dramatic evening c…