Babies and Kids
Keeping Babies Toxic-Free
My guest today is Laura Saville, one of three co-founding sisters of The Soft Landing, a comprehensive website with blog, safe product guides, and store for moms wanting to protect their children from toxic chemicals. Her years spent in business management prior to becoming a wife and mother helped her hone the ability to handle the fine details and mountains of research her job at The Soft Landing requires. Laura has a love of common sense and practicality, and finds great pleasure in helping parents on their journeys to reducing their family’s exposure to toxic chemicals in everyday products, one baby step at a time. www.thesoftlanding.com
Skin and Laundry Products for Baby: Organic, Simple, Safe
My guest today is Lindsay Herron, co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics in Bozeman, Montana. She and her husband make products designed to prevent, heal and soothe skin irritation. “It is a dream job for me,” says Lindsay. “Feeling passionate and dedicated about the work we get to do is such a gift.” In her former career, Lindsay worked as a Mental Health and Licensed Addictions Therapist. She built two practices serving rural areas in Montana. Prior to that she worked as a bilingual counselor serving Hispanic women and domestic violence victims in Raleigh, NC. What she has learned through her work, is that at the core, she loves people. She learns new things everyday and appreciate lessons that are both positive and negative. She enjoys quality time with her family, skiing, and camping…”anything outdoors where I can unplug from technology and connect with the important things in life!” www.buckaroo-organics.com
Helping Children Make Good Food Choices
My guest today is Katherine Pryor, a good food advocate based in Seattle. While advocating for Farm to School funding in the state capitol one year, Katherine was impressed by the array of stories told by parents, teachers, and school administrators about how having farm to school programs and school gardens had changed kids’ eating practices. She wanted to write these stories from the kids’ perspectives, hoping to inspire schools and government agencies to support good food education. Her first children’s book, Sylvia’s Spinach, is being used to complement school garden curriculum and encourage young readers to try new foods. Her next book, Zora’s Zucchini, will be published in 2015. We’ll be talking about how you can help your kids make better food choices at home and when they are out in the world at school and with friends. Among other projects, Katherine has worked 
on a successful campaign to get Starbucks to commit to dBGH-free milk nationwide and worked with Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care initiative, helping hospitals use their purchasing power to support local and sustainable food producers. In addition to writing, Katherine manages a statewide program to bring local and sustainable foods to Washington hospitals. www.katherinepryor.com
Your Baby’s Toxic Womb
My guest today is Penelope Jagessar Chaffer, a multi award winning documentary filmmaker, writer and children’s environmental health advocate. She’s working on a film called Toxic Baby. Today we’ll be talking about what Penelope has learn about how toxic chemicals can affect your baby even before it’s born. Penelope is the first black, female director to be nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. Born in London, of Trinidadian parentage, she started her career at the BBC, before moving to Channel 4. She has won many awards for films created for the BBC and Channel 4. In addition to being the director, producer and writer of Toxic Baby, Penelope has been named one of the top 100 Green Online Influencers and has been awarded the “Mom On A Mission” award by Healthy Child, Healthy World, the non profit named by Vanity Fair magazine as one of Mrs. Michelle Obama’s two favorite charity organizations. Penelope’s TED talk with Professor Tyrone Hayes on the effects of toxic chemicals on babies and children has been viewed over 300,000 times. She is also an author for Toxipedia, writes her own blog and for publications around the world. A mother of two, Penelope lives in Brooklyn, New York City. www.toxicbaby.com | www.ted.com/talks/tyrone_hayes_penelope_jagessar_chaffer_the_toxic_baby
Developing a Toxic Free Toy
My guest today is Jim Barber, a Managing Partner at MWB Toy, LLC, a startup toy company based in Danbury, CT. We’ll be talking about how MWB Toy is developing a line of toxic-free toys under the Luke’s Toy Factory brand name. Luke is Jim’s son, and the toy designer. These toys will be made in the USA with sustainable and safe materials. With 85% of the world’s toys produced in China and a slew of quality & safety issues in recent years, Luke’s Toy Factory set out to create sustainable, competitively priced toys made in the US. These toys will utilize organic by-products of industrial farming and industrial manufacturing operations, and never use paint!. Moreover, by eliminating overseas shipping from China they cut down on their carbon footprint and reduce pollution that results from transportation.. Jim is the owner of Jim Barber Studio, Inc, a well known still life photography studio that counts over 100 of the Fortune 500 companies as clients. His work has won many awards for advertising and annual report photography. He is also a judge of the ARC awards, the premier worldwide award competition for the annual report industry. Kickstarter project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lukesfty/ecotruck-made-from-safe-organic-materials-in-the-u
A Different Way to Play—Natural Toys Inspired by Waldorf Education
My guest today is Sarah Baldwin, owner of Bella Luna Toys, a leading website offering families natural, wooden, and eco-friendly toys inspired by Waldorf education. We’ll be talking about how natural toys are a safe alternative to the usual toxic toys, and how Waldorf education offers children a different way to play. Sarah is a former actress and teacher and is the author of Nurturing Children and Families, a guide for Waldorf-inspired play group leaders. She has taught music-and-movement classes for parents and toddlers; started a support and activity group for stay-at-home-mothers; and worked in preschool classrooms in Los Angeles before earning a master’s degree in Waldorf early childhood education in 1999. Sarah taught early childhood classes at the Ashwood Waldorf School in Rockport, ME for ten years, and currently serves as a board member of LifeWays North America, an organization devoted to developing healthy childcare and training programs for caregivers, parents and educators. www.debralynndadd.com/debras-list/bella-luna-toys
Toxic Chemicals in Children’s Products
My guests today are Erika Schreder and Nancy Uding from Washington Toxics Coalition. We’ll be talking about their report Chemicals Revealed, which analyzes reports filed with the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) by manufacturers, in compliance with the state’s Children’s Safe Products Act of 2008. More than 5,000 reports were filed that contained a total of 41 chemicals identified by Ecology as a concern for children’s health. Erika, Science Director, leads the Washington Toxics Coalition’s research program. She has worked on the Washington Toxics Coalition staff since 1997. She has led studies including an investigation of sources of pollution to Puget Sound, tests of toxic chemicals in toys and other children’s products, and biomonitoring studies of toxics in pregnant women and other Washingtonians. In the past, she led efforts to secure protections for salmon from pesticides and win greater support for organic and sustainable agriculture. She obtained an M.S. in ecology from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in molecular biology from MIT. Nancy, author of the report, has a Bachelor’s degree in Ecosystems Analysis from Huxley College at Western Washington University, and a Master’s in Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington. She studied freshwater and marine ecosystems as an undergrad and studied bioremediation of toxic organic compounds and the environmental chemistry of pollutants in grad school. Nancy has professional experience in hazardous waste management and in waste water engineering, but also has experience representing the interests of families of children with special needs at Seattle Children’s Hospital. http://watoxics.org/chemicalsrevealed
Good Scents for Moms, Babies, Toddlers, and Kids
My guest Fran Loudas is the Founder of Belly Buttons & Babies, an organic body and skin care company founded in 2008. Fran has 18 years experience as a Certified Aromatherapist, Aromatherapy & Facial Procedures Specialist, Oriental Diagnostics Consultant, Herbal Remedy Specialist and is certified in the Design & Production of Aromatherapy Skin Care Products. She has also taught Aromatherapy online and writes for various health related websites. And above all, she’s a Mom. We’ll be talking about the difference between toxic fragrance and beneficial essential oils, and about the importance of using natural products before, during and after pregnancy as well as for babies, toddlers and children. www.bellybuttonsandbabies.com
Choosing Toxic Free Toys
My guest Bethany Gonzalez Moreno is the founder of B. EcoChic and the B. EcoChic Seal of Approval. As a childhood cancer survivor, she knew when she got pregnant with her first child that she needed to find safe, non-toxic products for her little one. She decided to launch B. EcoChic to help other parents in their search. She’s been featured on ABC / NBC affiliate First Coast News and has been interviewed for many websites and magazines like Kiwi, Woman’s World, and E: The Environmental Magazine. We’ll be talking about how Bethany chooses toxic free toys for her Seal of Approval, toxic chemicals in toys you want to watch out for, and where to find the safest toys. www.b-ecochic.com.
Why Your Newborn Baby Needs an Organic Crib Mattress
My guest is Barry Cik, founder of Naturepedic, the leading brand for organic baby and children’s mattresses (they now make adult mattresses too). As an environmental engineer Barry understands toxic chemical issues better than most product manufacturers and has a “no compromise” policy when choosing materials from which to make Naturepedic products. We’ll discuss why an organic mattress is so important for babies and children, toxic chemicals found in common mattresses and their health effects, and what goes in to designing and constructing a “certified organic mattress.” www.naturepedic.com
