You may be surprised to know that, pound for pound, kids eat more food, drink more liquids and inhale more fumes than adults. That’s why, according to the EPA, carcinogens in our environment are on average 10 times more potent for your kids than for you… in some cases 65 times more potent.

But it’s easy for parents to get overwhelmed with all the recommendations and products to keep toxins and harmful chemicals out of their families’ lives. My job as a pediatrician is to condense the research and the facts into a few simple rules that any family can follow to make sure they’re making choices that are great for their children, themselves and our environment.

Harmful chemicals in our environment get into our bodies in three ways: what we put into our mouths, what we put on our skin and what we inhale through the air. The following recommendations are easy to implement and simple to start today by opening a window or taking a trip to the store.

Eliminating Chemicals from the Food We Eat

The simple rule for eliminating chemicals from our food and drink is to avoid products with added chemicals you really don’t need. Watch for preservatives, added colors and flavors, and avoid products with artificial sweeteners. Instead, you can make a positive impact on your health and the environment when you choose real fruits, fresh vegetables, wholesome seeds and nuts, and, the most natural of all healthful foods, breast milk for babies.

Cutting Down on Chemicals on Our Skin

The one best thing we can do for our kids when it comes to limiting chemicals on the skin is to make the right choices about sunscreen. Our bodies love the benefit provided by a little bit of sunlight. Sunshine helps us produce vitamin D, and a little sun can promote health throughout the body. But we’ve learned that the sun’s rays can be harmful, and doctors recommend we protect our kids from exposure.

Some sunscreens have chemicals that absorb the sun’s harmful UV rays; other types have ingredients that block the rays. The types that absorb rays tend to mimic hormones, and I’d rather see parents choosing sunscreens with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as active ingredients. These ingredients stop the harmful rays from reaching the skin without harmful chemicals.

Clearing the Air in Our Homes

Believe it or not, the air in our homes can be 2-5 times more polluted than air outside. Studies have found an average of 900 chemicals in the air and on surfaces in our homes. You can significantly reduce the amount of indoor airborne toxins with my four simple steps:

1. Do not let anyone smoke in your house at any time.
2. Choose household cleaners with nontoxic ingredients to eliminate unnecessary artificial fragrances, harsh chemicals and toxic fumes.
3. Open the windows to let the good air in and the bad fumes out.
4. Green your home and clean your air with houseplants, which can remove up to 90 percent of the indoor air pollutants in your home.

If you follow the simple recommendations in each area, you can reduce exposure to the toxins that could harm your family and our environment. Your changes today can result in a better life for your family tomorrow and beyond.

Shoes protect the feet; helmets protect the head. Helmets can be very effective at preventing serious head injuries, but nevertheless, head injury during active play remains a leading cause of death among children. Why might this be?

A study in the August 2003 Pediatrics looked at hundreds of Massachusetts kids aged 4 through 18. When asked, most of the kids reported “always” or “almost always” using helmets when biking, skating, scootering, and skateboarding.

When kids are observed, though, the numbers are often much lower – in some studies, as few as 12 to 15 percent of in-line skaters were seen to be wearing helmets. Among kids that are wearing their helmets, poor helmet fit has been shown to be associated with a higher risk of head injury.

The kids in the Massachusetts study were asked to bring in their helmets to be checked. Ninety percent of them felt that it was “easy” or “pretty easy” to fit a helmet. The study found, however, that only a shocking 4 percent of the children had helmets in acceptable condition with a good fit. The biggest problems were helmets that rode too high on the forehead or that were too loose, allowing the helmets to slide forward and backward on the head.

Paying attention to be sure that the helmet rests low on the forehead and does not slide from front to back could be an important way to help keep your child safe.

I came across an interesting article in the June 3, 2003 Boston Globe. “Water bottles are not all created equal.” The article quotes Ryan Jordan, a biofilm engineer, who explained that softer plastic bottles can create a safe haven for bacteria and lead to infections when people head off for summer fun at picnics, hiking trails, and campsites. After relating a number of tips for keeping water clean, the article makes a profound, off-hand statement.

Surprisingly, the main cause for infections on the trail is not bacteria or parasites in rivers, streams, ponds, or water bottles. Instead, the problem comes when people enjoying the outdoors don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom!

This is especially true before preparing or eating a picnic meal or an outdoor snack. Soap and water may not be practical on the go, but alcohol-based instant hand sanitizers are portable, healthy, effective ways to get the hands clean even without soap and water.

What a great tip for enjoying the sun or the stars or summer family fun.

Dr. Greene’s Answer:

One of the great wonders of the human body is the ability of damaged cells to be repaired or replaced. Red blood cells, for instance, live for about 120 days. Each day, about 1% of your red blood cells retire, to be replaced by a fresh generation. This same story of replenishment, replacement, and repair is repeated in almost every part of your body.

The lens of the eye is a notable exception. The cells of the lens of the eye are never replaced; the proteins of the lens are never replenished. The lens cannot repair itself; damage accumulates over a lifetime.

The lens is intended to focus and transmit light to the back of the eye. Sometimes tiny, cloudy spots form in the lens. These can spread to turn the entire lens milky white, scattering the incoming light and blocking vision. People with this condition sometimes feel as if they were looking at the world through a waterfall, which is why the ancient Greeks named these cloudy changes cataracts, or waterfalls.

This condition has blinded more people throughout the ages than any other problem of the eye. Senile cataracts, those that develop slowly with advancing age, are the most common cataracts. They are the result of gradually accumulating damage to the proteins of the lens. The most important source of this damage is exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, especially while one is young. Today cataracts can be treated with surgery and artificial lenses.

Behind the lens lies the retina, the thin lining of the back of the eye. The retina is the eye’s miracle. This patch of tissue, about the size and thickness of a postage stamp, is able to dissolve and create a new image every tenth of a second. Look across the room and marvel at how quickly your retina creates new images.

The retina is woven of brain cells. It is the part of the brain that faces the world around us. Its efforts are more intense than those of any other part of the brain. No other tissue in the body uses oxygen or food at such a rate. The hardest working region of the retina is called the macula. The macula is the part of the retina that lies directly in the path of light rays focused by the lens.

Today in the United States, retinal diseases are the leading cause of blindness. Unlike cataracts, little can be done to treat them. Unlike the lens, the retina is irreplaceable. Macular degeneration, the accumulation of damage in the retina, is the leading cause of blindness from retinal disease. Slowly over the years the macula is irreversibly damaged by exposure to UV radiation. About one third of adults over age 65 experience this steady decline of central vision, not correctable by glasses.

Excessive exposure to sunlight during early childhood is harmful to the eyes. Sunlight contains harmful UV radiation. The risk for retinal damage from the sun’s rays is greatest in children less than 10 years old, although the consequences usually do not become apparent until well after they are adults.

Teaching your children to wear sunglasses may be more important than giving them a college fund.

All children should be taught to wear wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses, especially between 10 AM and 2 PM, when ultraviolet exposure is the most dangerous. This is true even for children with darker eye colors, even though their darker pigments afford partial protection. Of course, children with light-colored eyes need sunglasses all the more. Ultraviolet exposure is at its peak when children are at high altitudes, snow-covered landscapes, bright sandy beaches, or near reflective bodies of water.

Most people wear sunglasses to reduce glare. This is trivial compared to the long-term protection they afford for the precious ability to see. Parents can set a good example for their children by wearing sunglasses at the appropriate times.

All sunglasses are not the same. Effective sunglasses should block both UVA and UVB radiation. Large lenses that fit close to the eyes and partially wrap around the sides of the face are best. Those that block visible blue light are even safer. Thankfully, all sunglasses block UVB radiation. A great many sunglasses, however, do not afford UVA protection. Expensive brand names and polarizing lenses are no guarantee. The sunglasses must be measured to block 99% to 100% of UVA or UV400 (400 nm is the wavelength of UVA radiation).

Ordinary sunglasses without full UV protection make the situation WORSE! The dark lenses cause the pupils to dilate, allowing more of the dangerous UVA radiation to damage the lens and the retina.

Of course, children will break and lose sunglasses with remarkable rapidity. Thankfully, suitable sunglasses are quite cheap. I bought another pair yesterday for under five dollars that blocked blue light and had 100% UV400 protection.

Expensive brands may be more stylish, but they confer no advantage when it comes to eye health.