A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Like wearing statements on your chest? In The Best Graphic, Organic T-Shirts, we give you a plethora of opportunities to choose from. From small indie brands in the U.K., to names you know here stateside, we guarantee you’ll find something you like.

People ask us what we read to get so much interesting information. It’s not just our super powers that help us think outside the box, we’re also inspired by others. In Our Big Fat Conscious Reading List: The Best Websites Of 2011, we break it all down for you by our section sites. Happy reading!

Does the term “Homesteading” inspire thoughts of pioneers? Did you know you could become one no matter where you live? It’s true; keeping bees, chickens and a compost can be done with ease and in her article Making Homesteading Approachable, writer K. Emily Bond will give you some ideas on how to personalize it.

We’re not perfect humans, but we are what we eat. That might mean many horror-inducing things to you if you’re a Doritos freak or a cupcake hound. Consuming junk, or even semi-healthy foods in moderation, allows for toxins to build up over time. Is it time to cleanse? In her article Do Cleanses Really Work?, writer Libby Lowe explores not just different cleanses but why we think we need them.

“However you see the relative attractiveness of human bodies, it is a cultural idea, not an inherent truth, that women are more beautiful than men,” writer Starre Vartan says in her article The Beautiful Man.” A woman’s curves are used to entice consumers “to buy toothpaste and batteries,” because society dictates that “it’s just that women are so much more lovely, you see. Implied is the idea that if men’s bodies were somehow less visually unfortunate, their bodies would be used, too. I call bullocks,” says Vartan.

Image: deltaMike

At one time fish was my go-to food choice when I was feeling worried about supporting the corporate meat industry. Hey, it made sense. Not only was I “voting with my fork” by not supporting large-scale beef producers, like say Tyson Foods, I was also eating healthier, benefiting from such heart-friendly nutrients as Omega-3 fatty acids. Studies have shown societies who eat more fish have fewer health problems, right?

True, eating fish makes for healthier living. Or at least it used to be. This may no longer be the case given the barrage of recent reports about toxins in fish. While it may not exactly be “new” news – pregnant women have long been urged to avoid fish due to worries about high mercury levels – the din of new reports seem to be echoing the high toxic levels themselves.

A recent article reported on stratospheric toxin levels in whales, and not just mercury. Cadmium, aluminum, lead, silver, titanium, and chromium were found in dangerous levels and all purportedly entered the food chain due to human related activities. Another report focused on seawater and its natural ability to retain mercury in its more toxic form.

In an earlier post I wrote about over-fishing and the idea of eating fewer fish in order to play a part in promoting the end of such practices as a consumer. As it is, you may not even want to eat the fish – period exclamation point!

Image: hoyasmeg

In the growing sea of walk-in nail salons, green alternatives are few and far between, but there is still something to celebrate in the mounting crusade for chemical-free cosmetics.

Among the newest bars on the block in the Bay Area: Nova Nail Spa in San Francisco and Isabella Nail Bar in Oakland – both billed as upscale, environmentally healthy environments using strictly non-toxic products.

Nova describes itself as the city’s first true eco nail salon as it was designed using responsible materials, finishes, ventilation, pedicure seats, lighting and flooring. And it only uses non-toxic shades of OPI and Zoya polishes to avoid that “paint shop smell” associated with traditional nail salons.

Among its services is the Organic Paradise mani-pedi featuring an indulgent bath of geranium essential oil and fresh rose petals, finished off with a relaxing ginger body lotion massage. It costs $72 and there, perhaps, lies the rub. Some salon customers would rather pay half that for a quick in-and-out combo at the nail bar down the street.

“Many come to check out what nail products we use and like it because we use the top organic lines like Spa Ritual and we pay higher for this than regular products,” explains Nova owner Kim Tham, who also offers a $48 early bird special to women working near the Mission Street shop near the Moscone Center.

Across the Bay at true-blue Isabella’s, you can spend $58 for a combo, and pamper yourself with a refreshing and aromatic spa treatments. Its web page explains that it was opened with the goal of defying the pungent smell of acrylic products and “tacky” motel-like set-ups of most shops operating today.

The pungent smell they speak of comes from the toxic trio of toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) which safe cosmetic advocates are pressing the $35 million cosmetic industry to phase out of its nail polishes and other products.

Banned in Europe, the chemical compounds that make up phthalates have been linked to cancer, birth defects, chronic asthma and skin disorders, especially form frequent exposure. Adding to the fumes and the dangers are acetone, solvents, glues and disinfectants which also have been linked to health problems. U.S. watchdogs are quick to regulate hygiene to prevent fungal bacterias, as witnessed in California legislation, but slow to regulate the use of the poisons in the products.

Most at risk are Vietnamese immigrants who comprise 80 percent of the more than 90,000 licensed manicurists in California, alone. There are some 250,000 in America, including Korean and Chinese immigrants joining the fast-growing, money-making sector. These hard working, industrious women have carved a successful niche owning and operating salons and don’t want to risk their livelihoods or retaliation from making a stink. Going green offers a way out.

“It really is about changing the mindset of the workers and the customers,” explains Uyen Nguyen, owner of Isabella, which caters to a middle to upper clientele in the Montclair neighborhood and depends largely on referrals. “The mindset is one of being into the earth and good health and recycling and not focusing on making fast money from acrylics.”

That quick buck is what keeps some manicurists from working for Nguyen, even those who have complained their throats and lungs hurt at the end of the day. She keeps nine employees at one time and pays them well, hoping they will grow along with her. Issues over pay and mistreatment in the industry have surfaced lately, including a lawsuit last August on the part of manicurists in Newark, N.J. who alleged their salon employers failed to pay minimum wage and overtime and barred adequate breaks during shifts.

Nguyen says as word gets around about her green concept, more clients are coming from Berkeley and surrounding areas, and that some of her colleagues are now opening healthier salons and duplicating  her formula for success. Meantime, many other manicurists resist change out of fear.

“I know it isn’t healthy but what can I do?” asks Pong, a pretty 38-year-old single mother of two who works at Tower Nails in San Francisco where she does all of the acrylic nail treatments and hot wax hair removal. She immigrated from Can Tho in 1998 and supports her parents who live with her and her school aged children.

She is right to wonder what she can do, since the burden should really lie with the manufacturers who sell wholesale to the salons which often pay high rent to stay in business. To make a profit, women like Pong work long, hard hours, often six or seven days a week, sharing tips, eating quick lunches in the poorly ventilated rooms between services.

Since Vietnamese manicurists continue to use the hazardous products and don’t advocate for themselves, agencies like  the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative are working to advance an environmental health agenda for the nail salon sector in the state. Fiscally supported by Asian Health Services, an Oakland-based community health clinic, it reaches out to non-English speaking workers who are at a great disadvantage when it comes to accessing and understanding information on chemical dangers.

“One of the things we’re doing is compiling lists of the companies that have removed the toxic trio from their polishes, base and top coats,” explains Julia Liou, the director of program planning and development. “OPI, Zoya, Sally Hansen and the water-based Acquarella are a few that have committed to healthy change, but you have to research them since sometimes, they only take toxins out of seasonal shades.”

While advocates try to inform Asian women of the health risks,  consumers also need to brush up on chemical exposure, and to take a stand against the cosmetic industry with their pocketbooks. They can tell their neighborhood salons they prefer they buy the healthier brands, and start frequenting the emerging green nail bars, many of which are run by Asian women.

“Owners need to offer alternatives and the market needs to dictate the eco concept,” insists Nguyen. “This is how the healthy nail salon will become a trend.”

A Green Salon Near You

• Chi Organic Nail Spa, Beverly Hills, CA
• Evolution Green Room Salon, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Honey Nail Salon, Atlanta, GA
• Julep Nail Parlor, Seattle, WA
• Priti Organic Spa, New York City
• Pure Nails, Austin, TX

Images: quinn.anya, Nova Nail Spa, Isabella Nail Bar, Luanne Bradley

When the peace of a community is shattered by man-made disaster – an oil spill, a toxic gas leak, a nuclear meltdown – a scar is left that may fade with passing decades but will never fully heal. While some may be able to clean up and return to a sense of normalcy, others stand fenced-off and unchanged like a silent memorial. Located around the globe, these seven catastrophic environmental disasters have had a profound effect upon the earth and local residents that continues today, as many as 50 years later.

Love Canal Community Contamination

In the late 1950s, the little neighborhood of Love Canal, New York seemed idyllic. Located just miles from the picturesque Niagara Falls, the land was purchased by the city from Hooker Chemical Company for a dollar. It was worth much less. The residents of the neighborhood’s 100 newly constructed homes had no idea that they were living atop one big hazardous chemical dumping ground.

But the consequences of building homes and a school where over 21,000 tons of toxic waste lurked just beneath the surface became all too clear by the 1970s with shockingly high rates of miscarriages, birth defects, cancer and nervous disorders. Resident Lois Gibbs led a campaign to uncover the cause, and a federal health emergency was declared, demolishing houses and relocating more than 800 families.

As a result of the tragedy, the Superfund Act was passed by Congress to hold polluters responsible for severe environmental damage. In 2004, Love Canal was finally declared clean, though most of the neighborhood remains abandoned – even though hundreds of similar toxic Superfund sites still sit waiting for their turn.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Meltdown

March 28, 1979 marked the beginning of a three-day series of “mechanical, electrical and human failures” that produced a catastrophic meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility in Pennsylvania.

Though the radiation released wasn’t significant enough to cause a public health crisis, the accident brought a general lack of oversight and emergency response planning in the nuclear power industry to light and led to a huge spike in local opposition to the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Cleanup and decontamination of the Three Mile Island accident site cost $975 million and wasn’t completed until 1993. Today, Three Mile Island is still in operation, though the generating station involved in the meltdown is no longer used. A radiation leak was investigated in November 2009, but federal officials say there was no threat to public safety.

Minamata Mercury Poisoning

It’s not common knowledge amongst Westerners, but the Minamata mercury incident in Japan was severe enough to get a disease named after it. A chemical company called Chisso Corporation disposed of thousands of tons of industrial wastewater containing methyl mercury in the town of Minamata from 1908 to 1968, which poisoned the local population through consumption of contaminated seafood.

What’s now known as Minamata Disease was discovered in 1956, when clusters of victims in fishing hamlets along the bay came forward with strange symptoms. Severe cases of the disease led to paralysis, insanity, coma and death within weeks of symptoms first appearing. Similar effects were seen in local animals like cats and birds.

Over 2,265 victims have been officially certified by the Japanese government – 1,784 of whom have died – but over 17,000 people have applied for certification. Chisso Corporation, which stopped using mercury in 1969, has spent $86 million compensating over 10,000 victims and was ordered to clean up the contamination in 2004.


Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill

Who can forget the Exxon-Valdez oil spill? 11 million gallons of sticky black crude oil fouled the pristine Prince William Sound in Alaska on March 23rd, 1989 after a tanker crashed into an iceberg as the captain napped. While it’s far from the largest oil spill in history, it caused the most environmental damage, and images of wildlife suffocating in oil hit the public hard.

10,000 workers spent four summers cleaning up 1,400 miles of coastline, and recent images of Prince William Sound seem to show total recovery. But swaths of oil are still buried just beneath the surface of many beaches and many species affected by the spill are still struggling. If there’s one positive thing that came out of this disaster, it’s the federal Oil Pollution Act, which changed critical industry practices and standards to prevent similar damage from subsequent spills.

Bhopal Gas Leak

The death toll may be as high as 35,000 and the nightmare still continues for victims of one of the most horrendous environmental disasters of all time. Half a million residents of Bhopal, India were poisoned on December 3rd, 1984 when the Union-Carbide pesticide manufacturing plant released extremely volatile methyl isocyanate gas and other toxins into the air due to lax safety standards and budget cuts. Bodies lined the streets and thousands more suffered agony, blindness and permanent health problems.

Many survivors unwittingly passed Bhopal’s legacy to their own children in the form of congenital defects, but that’s not the only way the incident still haunts the population. Union Carbide – now owned by Dow Chemical Company – never cleaned up the contamination and the factory site continues to leak deadly chemicals into the air, soil and water.  The company has eluded charges of culpable homicide in Bhopal for over 20 years.

TVA Coal Sludge Spill

America’s worst man-made environmental disaster occurred on December 22nd, 2008 at the Kingston Tennessee Valley Authority power plant as 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic coal sludge burst over a dam wall, invading the Emory River and 400 acres of nearby homes and farmland.

Coal ash, a waste product, contains arsenic and potentially carcinogenic heavy metals, yet is not regulated by the EPA. That was supposed to change within a year of the spill, but the agency has delayed action. Meanwhile, experts say the spill could have severe lasting health effects for area residents.

TVA estimated that it would have all 2.4 million cubic yards out of the area by 2013, but announced in March 2010 that a complete cleanup is “technologically impossible.”

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

Nobody knows exactly how many people died as a result of the catastrophic nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine on April 26th, 1986. Officials count 56 direct fatalities and 4,000 cancer deaths, but these estimates are likely on the low side. 1,100 buses evacuated area residents the day the accident occurred, but they had already been exposed to radiation that was high enough to set off alarms in Sweden.

Today, the adjacent city of Pripyat is a disturbing ghost town full of rusting metal, peeling paint and evidence of lives seemingly abandoned in mid-step. Gas masks and baby dolls litter the hallways of a school, clothes still flutter in the wind on a clothesline at an apartment complex.  The displaced survivors may be going on with their lives in other cities, but they’re often doing so with brain tumors, debilitating headaches and birth defects.

People are officially forbidden to live within the 17-mile “Exclusion Zone” around Chernobyl, and radiation levels in the area are still 10-100 times higher than normal “background levels” but several million people continue to live on contaminated land.

Images: coal-ash-spill.com, google sightseeing, Three Mile Island via wikimedia commons, Chisso Factory Effluent via wikimedia commons, Exxon Spill via wikimedia commons, Dow Chemical Banner via wikimedia commons and View of Chernobyl via wikimedia commons

After years of claiming it’s not a risk, the EPA has announced that it will formally list Bisphenol A (BPA) as a “chemical of concern”. Considering all the studies showing how this hormone disruptor can affect our bodies, this is great news – but don’t expect big changes anytime soon. As we wait for manufacturers to perform tests on the chemical’s impact, it’s up to us to avoid BPA as much as we can.

Cutting BPA out altogether is easier said than done if you want to use any modern products whatsoever, but you can significantly lower your exposure – as long as you know exactly where this chemical is lurking. We’ve heard a lot about BPA in some reusable bottles, but some of the sources are surprisingly sneaky. Here are 17 common products that contain BPA and how to avoid them.

1. Dental Sealants – If you want to protect those pearly whites with some dental bonding or sealants, beware the specter of BPA. A study found that this chemical can leach into saliva following certain dental procedures. But don’t panic – BPA-free alternatives are available; just ask your dentist.

2. Receipts – You know how most modern receipts have a really smooth texture? That slick coating usually contains (you guessed it) BPA. And it’s no trivial nanogram quantity – we’re talking sizeable amounts that can pass into your skin or consumed when you eat. Studies on exactly how much ends up in the body are forthcoming, but at least this one is easy to avoid: just say no to receipts. You’ll save paper and prevent waste, too.

3. Baby Bottles – Babies are particularly susceptible to harmful effects from BPA, so many parents find the fact that it’s present in some bottles worrisome to say the least. Luckily, however, BPA-free bottles are now widely available and the top six baby bottle makers in the U.S. have agreed to stop using the chemical.

4. Children’s Toys – Nom nom nom! Gotta love all that BPA (not to mention lead and other toxins) that children end up chomping on when they’re innocently playing with their toys. But thanks to all those protective parents out there, the internet is rife with recommendations for BPA-free brands. Check out the Consumer Reports Toy Buying Guide for safe options.

5. Canned Food Liners – Soups, juices, beans and tomatoes. All of these goods and more are often tainted with BPA when canned, all because of a protective plastic lining. The Environmental Working Group performed tests on a wide range of goods and found the highest concentrations in infant formula, chicken soup and ravioli. But not all brands use BPA – get a list at Treehugger.

6. Canning Jar Lids – Alas, even when you preserve your own foods, BPA is there to rain on your parade. Canning jar lids have a lining similar to that in tin cans, but there’s usually minimal contact with food. If you want to be extra-careful, seek out glass-lidded canning jars like those made by Weck.

7. Plastic food containers – They may be convenient, making it easy to store, transport and reheat food, but plastic food containers are one of the biggest sources of BPA. The easiest and most important step you can take is to stop microwaving food in plastic containers. BPA-free stainless steel and glass options are readily available and last longer anyway.

8. Medical Devices – Could plastic components be leaching BPA into patients’ bodies during heart bypass surgeries and hemodialysis? The FDA haslaunched a pair of studies to find out. It’s a concern due to the length of time that patients can be exposed to the chemical, but it only affects a small portion of the population so chances are, you don’t have to worry about this one.

9. Pizza Boxes – If you haven’t groaned in frustration already, do it now and get it out of your system. Yes, even certain recycled pizza boxes are said to contain BPA. Since pizza boxes can’t usually be recycled anyway, why not make this easy on yourselves and either make pizza at home or eat in instead of getting delivery. Score an easy and extremely delicious New York-style pizza crust recipe (my personal favorite) from Recipezaar.com.

10. Toilet Paper – Remember those pesky receipts? It turns out, they’re often recycled into toilet paper, BPA and all. But this problem is bigger than the amount that gets transferred to your private bits in the bathroom. Once toilet paper is flushed and processed at waste plants, much of that BPA ends up in surface water and groundwater. Does this mean we should ditch recycled toilet paper and use that virgin tree stuff instead? Not necessarily, but it is a tough call.

11. Water Coolers – The large hard plastic bottles used in water coolers are yet another source of BPA. A better (and less wasteful) option is to simply outfit your kitchen faucet with a filter from Brita or PUR, which are BPA-free.

12. Soda Cans – If you’re one of those people with a Diet Coke can permanently glued to your hand, listen up. Bizarre chemical ingredients and artificial sweeteners aren’t the only enemy in that caustic stuff – BPA is found in almost all brands of canned soft drinks. Cut back on your soda intake, and you’ll be better off in more ways than one.

13. Beer and Wine – While there’s no good way to avoid the BPA that is sometimes found in the epoxy lining of wine vats short of giving up wine altogether (crazy talk!), you can skip the BPA-flavored beer by simply choosing bottles over cans. BPA is a bigger risk in canned beer than in soda, because it’s highly soluble in alcohol.

14. Eyewear – If you wear sunglasses or eyeglasses with plastic lenses, you’re probably in constant contact with BPA all day long. It’s tough to tell how much of an impact this could have on health, but if you want to be safe, metal frames are a good bet.

15. CDs and DVDs – It’s probably safe to say that you don’t often lick your CDs or DVDs, and we handle them so briefly, the BPA contained within these items isn’t a threat to most people.

16. Blenders and Food Processors – Since these items are in direct contact with our food, it’s good to know which brands contain BPA and which don’t. Consumer research website Z Recommends has a handy guide, with the Beaba Babycook, the Vita-Mix 5200 blender and Hamilton Beach’s Big Mouth food processors all coming out winners in the “safe” category.

17. Car Parts – These days, car interiors are almost entirely made from hard plastics, so it’s not too surprising to learn that BPA lurks in the steering wheel, gear shift, dashboard and more. Good luck finding a plastic-free vehicle – but hey, it’s another good excuse to walk more often.

Images: stevendepolo, conor lawless, rolandslakis, fernashes

The tens of thousands of albatross chicks who have been sickened or killed by lead-based paint can’t exactly walk into a courtroom and stand up for themselves – so an environmental group is doing it for them.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to clean up lead-contaminated paint on buildings at a former U.S. Navy base on the Midway atoll, which is the most important breeding site for the Laysan albatross.

Up to 10,000 chicks are killed each year by lead poisoning, says the center, citing a study published last October. Many more albatross chicks are affected by neurological conditions like “˜droopwing’, in which the chick is no longer able to lift its wings. This condition, which makes flying impossible, often causes the affected chicks to die of starvation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took over responsibility for the Midway atoll, located near Hawaii, in 1996. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, FWS stopped maintaining 95 military buildings coated with layers of lead-based paint which are now chipping off and being eaten by the chicks.

In fact, confused albatross parents even feed such inedible debris to their chicks. Photographer Chris Jordan documented the consequences of this unfortunate habit in a series of troubling images depicting albatross remains filled with bits of plastic. The shocking photos illustrate the effects that human civilization can have upon the natural world.

The center alleges that in failing to clean up the lead paint, the Fish and Wildlife Service is violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Endangered Species Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery. The Laysan albatross is listed as a “vulnerable species” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Image: Kristin McCully/Midway Coral Reef

Getting Purelled is the growing phenomenon of sanitizing one’s germ-infested mitts with the alcohol-based, Johnson & Johnson product known as Purell.

What’s in the name, William Safire students might ask?

Pure, I imagine, denotes the opposite of tainted, which in flu terms translates into ralphing, the runs and the unpleasant sensation of having been poisoned by Satan. Elle is French for she, as in, she is cruel that H1N1 Virus, widespread in 47 states now. Elle also is a swank Fifties ad-on, like ette for dinette. It sounds real classy.

I first heard the term the other day after ordering my teenage daughter to wash her hands after school. She’s a nail biter, more susceptible than most.

“I just got purelled,” she explained, exhibiting a jellyfish-like, residue bubble in her palm, which she kept afloat because she was undoubtedly fascinated by its staying power.  She has been studying chemistry in school. And I believe pathogen is one of her SAT terms.

Sydney and her peers happily take advantage of the economy, vat-sized, plastic dispensers of the waterless germ fighter stationed in every nook and cranny of her school, from the bathrooms to the cafeteria, library and gym.

At the campus’s recent Grandparents Day buffet breakfast, I watched an elderly dude mistake the jug O’Purell for carbonated water, carelessly pumping a shot into his cup with a puzzled visage. I gently intervened to set him straight. “You don’t want to drink that, Mister.”

The sanitizer, albeit refreshing upon contact with the skin, is not desirable as a beverage, no matter how much the Dunder Mifflinaholic, Meredith Baxter, of The Office fame ingests it for its alcohol content.

Getting purelled sounds ironically similar to getting paroled. In fact, a link exists when you consider hand purifying might prevent weeks off from school, a form of prison for parents who can’t do squat during the duration of the relatively mild but ubiquitously feared illness. I know as a mom who recently emerged from the trenches with her Swine Flu-infected youngest.

“Mommy, I’m bored! Mommy, stop working, I’m bored! ” I call it Purell hell.

In an aggressive no-tolerance approach, our school armed itself with endless stockpiles of the weapon at the beginning of the year hoping it might slow what it cannot prevent. While the CDC says there are  plenty of the H1N1 vaccines to go around, many parents apparently prefer that surefire killer, Purell.

“I definitely think it has slowed down the spread since contact between these kids is so constant, maybe each child is contacting 20 others throughout the day,”  says Dr. David Abusch-Magder, the head of middle school at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco.

At least the school, which has an impressive recycling and composting program, is using refillable containers. If you must invest is this much plastic, you might as well maximize its shelf life.

In addition to schools,  I’ve spotted the dispensers just about everywhere these days, from Trader Joe’s checkout counters to business offices, exercise studios and even in the cup holder of my own car.  The truth is there is no place to avoid the risk of contamination. Many organisms continue to thrive in my car despite the Purell.

Another truth is that we are creating a population of Purelled humans immune to the small percentage of bacteria resistant to the liquid. Bacteria that don’t die simply reproduce.

Let’s just hope we can conceive of  a way to upcycle all of those plastic dispensers once we are restored.

This is the latest installment in Luanne’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Top image: The Local

Image One:Upyernoz

“When you watch the commercials you can tell they’re made of cheap stuff,” says my astute oldest daughter about the fleece blanket sensation known as the Snuggieâ„¢. “The people wearing them are just so cheesy, like the man in the leopard one who says he’s so glad he found a fun designer print that suits his personality.”

Snuggie consumers proudly wear the Made-in-China label on their sleeves, not considering the synthetic polyester fabric they’re breathing in all the while they’re adjusting their thermostats in the thin, robe-like throws. I find they leave me as cold as those stinky, plastic sealed airline blankets gifted to us on flights.

I’m not the only one with a chilly view of the blankets. There’s the YouTube ad that parodies by Snuggieâ„¢ haters, such as one done in the mockumentary format of The Office in which an employer forces her people to wear the wraps at work, despite their protests. A piece in Time shares one young man’s review: “It’s a bathrobe. That is really long. That you wear backwards.”

So far, five million and counting have bought into the ads depicting gray-haired ladies knitting on the sofa, moms reading on the sofa, great aunts chatting away on the phone on the sofa. One thing is clear: Folks just don’t get off that sofa when they’re folded into a Snuggie. Call it a straight jacket for polluted planet!

Allstar Products Group, Inc., the maker of the blanket, set up a Facebook Fan page and attracted 5,000 users in addition to an official online fan club site. That’s a lot of fleece.

Among the enthusiastic takers is my 10-year-old daughter, who went behind her green-leaning parents to ask a relative to buy her one for her birthday in the original royal blue.

She’s a big infomercial hound, my youngest, often repeating lines from the ads when we are out buying necessities for the house. “Mom, you should get the Ped Egg because it’s like having a professional spa treatment right in your own home,” she advises.

She had a fever over the weekend and taking away that Snuggie was harder than wrestling a cheese stick away from my pug. Pugs have little teeth, but they’ll take you down over cheese, and so will Lauren over a cheesy blanket.

“My friend Simon had one and I thought it would be warm for camp because I sleep right near the window,” says my daughter. “I also like it when I’m sick cause it makes me feel all snuggie.”

We don’t buy polyester bedding and we don’t want our kid dragging around a toxic security blanket. Yet burning it could create a micro Valdez. Which begs the question, how do you safely dispose of Mr. Snuggieâ„¢?

Because of the questionable chemicals in the fiber, I find it ironic how American Allstar Group’s publicity machine has tied in “the country’s favorite blanket with sleeves” with one of the country’s most pernicious diseases – breast cancer.

In May, they introduced the limited edition pink blanket for breast cancer. The company says it will donate $50,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation on behalf of the product.

I suppose the irony is that many of the questions posed to researchers at Cancer.Org relate to the link between toxins in textiles and breast cancer. One reader was wondering about her mother who had he worked at a chain of stores in which she cut cloth materials containing the kind of junk that is used to produce my daughter’s favorite throw.

If the Snuggie is such a mega hit and has made tons of dough for Allstar, why hasn’t an organic textile company made their own version of a healthy fleece blanket with sleeves?

“The Snuggie is a safe product, as it is approved and certified by all relevant industry standards,” I’m told by Anne Flynn, Director of Marketing at Allstar. “Snuggie is currently in the process of evaluating other materials, including natural, eco-friendly options, to meet consumer needs.”

Until we meet the eco Snuggie, the only newly unveiled additions introduced for the coming winter are styles for kids, dogs, a more plush version of the current design, and black and purple tie-dye fashions for the holidays.

I did find a few greener options, such as a Bear Adventure Warm Me Up made of recycled synthetics from Blankets and More (being introduced November 1st), and a cozy kimono for the preemie baby. There’s also the 85% recycled materials Peekaru, shown above (top left), for mom and baby.

Otherwise, the market is wide open for a healthier blanket with sleeves. My friends at Chia better get right on it!

This is the latest installment in Luanne’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Images: Bread and Sham, All Left Turns, SFGate, MomLogic, Snuggieâ„¢ Fan Club

It’s not unusual in California to see from 1,500 to 2,000 sea lion deaths on our beaches each year. But this year is off – way off – and no one can figure out why.

Starting in May and continuing through September, an unexpected onslaught of emaciated, young sea lions has been beached along the coast, requiring a tremendously heightened response among the marine mammal rescue networks throughout the state.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which coordinates these networks, is just as concerned about what is happening offshore at sea lion breeding colonies in California’s Channel Islands: Unusually high levels of mortality among the 59,000 pups born in this past spring.

“In one study area, 6,000 pup mortalities were observed where the average had been 1,000 to 1,500,” said Jeff Lake of NOAA’S National Marine Mammal Lab (NMML).

Beach goers have seen – and smelled – the signs that something is amiss. I’ve spotted many carcasses myself throughout the summer months and was surprised to encounter so many visitors soaking up surf and sand and picnicking on rocks amid rotting, decomposing mammals.

The rank smell just about knocked me out while exploring Costanoa with my husband. And in recent days, I’ve passed several rotting sea lions on the beach at Fort Funston, where I run. Naughty dogs go wild, barking and sniffing those sad decaying bodies with empty, hallowed-out eyes.

“We refer to marine mammals as a sentinel species that is like us and can provide a barometer of what is happening to our own ecosystem,” Trevor Spradlin of NOAA’s Washington D.C. office  tells me. “The sea lions have tapped out with a record number of cases of the mammals starving and since it cannot be linked to an El Niño, folks are scratching their heads.”

Perhaps puzzling now, the deaths are typical during an El Niño, such as the one experienced in 1997-1998, due to changes in water surface temperatures and a lack of upwelling.

Ocean upwelling is the mixing of deep cold water at the bottom of the ocean with warm water at the surface so that the cold water and nutrients that fertilize aquatic plants that form the food web can rise to the surface layers while warm water travels to the mid to deep depths. Such areas are very rich along the coast and that is where you find the anchovies, squid and sardines pinnipeds feed on.

While this isn’t the time for such a cycle, scientists are still seeing the oceanographic changes caused by the dying of winds in late April and June. There was no way to pull the vital nutrient-filled waters to the surface. This has been a large contributor to the starvation.

“A huge number of pups were born this year in the Channel Islands and the breakdown in the upwelling may have resulted in the fish moving to other areas inaccessible to young sea lions looking for food for the first time,” observes Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist and marine mammal strandings coordinator at NOAA National Marines Fisheries Southwest Regional Office in Long Beach, CA.  “Unlike the older animals, the young pups cannot follow the fish wherever they go.”

Cordaro says scientists also are considering the theory that upwelling has been so great, it has acted like a conveyor belt transporting nutrients to other areas. Either way, he agrees, nature is acting just like it does in an El Niño.

“We do have one developing in the Tropics, and if it continues to develop, it will be nothing compared to what we are now seeing in strandings and deaths,” says Cordaro. “It will pretty much wipe out the reproductive year, slowing down the rate of increase in the population.”

He adds that there is no way it will make a huge dent in the population, itself, because the sea lions have been increasing since the last El Niño with the current population of California  sea lions at about 239,000.The big mystery is why the lack of upwelling has occurred in some areas while not in others.

An investigation into the mystery is being led by Dr. Frances Gulland, Director of Veterinary Science at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. No one knows yet if any of this can be attributed to climate change. They do know that nothing like this occurred last year.

Meantime, beach visitors are asked to continue reporting sea lion strandings to the Sausalito center (415)298-SEAL rather than trying to coax mammals back into the water. Also, always stay back from the dead mammals found on the beach and keep your dogs away, as well.

For animal removal, you should contact the beach maintenance service in your city. Some have policies of removing the carcasses, while others allow them to remain, despite the ghastly smell.

While the dead animals provide food for sea birds and fowl, the sea lions are usually contaminated from pesticides and other toxins dumped into our oceans over time. Cordaro says it isn’t in the best interest of scavengers to feed on the carcasses.

“They don’t die from eating contaminants but their eggs become thin and crack before hatching,” he says. “It effects the reproduction of the next generation.”

Main Image: Luanne Bradley

Image One: Vanilla Sheikh

Image Two: NOAA

Image Three: Quarterdome

Stay away from processed meats like bacon, hot dogs and sausage. Sodium nitrate accounts for their appetizing red hue, but this additive can also cause the formation of nitrosamines in your system, which can lead to cancer.

Stick to low-mercury fish like American-farmed tilapia instead of swordfish or tuna. Overexposure can cause memory problems, fatigue and other health issues, and besides, most wild fish stocks are threatened these days. (Looking for an alternative? There’s branzini, the fish you’ve never heard of.)

Reduce the amount of canned food you consume. Cans are commonly lined with bisphenol-A, an organic compound that, according to the Lang study, may be associated with diabetes and heart disease.

Cut back on meat and dairy products. These animal products may contain trace amounts of harmful contaminants like polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyl and dioxins. Although many of these toxins have been banned, they are still present in the soil. Reducing your intake of animal products is also more friendly to the environment.

Skip the diet soda and artificial sweeteners. Prolonged exposure to aspartame, a neurotoxic chemical additive in these products, can lead to nerve cell damage, dizziness and headaches. Besides, anything that gives rats brain tumors is worth avoiding in my book.

Choose the farmed fish carefully. Studies show that farm-raised fish contain more polychlorinated biphenyl and over 10 times the amount of dioxin.

Opt for organic chicken. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy discovered traces of arsenic in non-organic chickens. Exposure to this dangerous chemical can lead to cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Another study also found numerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria in conventional poultry.

Only drink milk that says “no rBGH” on the carton because recombinant bovine growth hormone has been linked with breast cancer. Better yet, opt for responsibly-produced, unsweetened soy, nut or rice milk.

Avoid manufactured snacks. Hydrogenated oils are used to lengthen the shelf life of products like crackers and cookies, but they are also associated with diabetes and heart disease. Another reason to stay away from the middle aisles: snack foods are generally loaded with salt, corn syrup and other unhealthy ingredients.

Stay away from artificially-colored foods like candy, maraschino cherries and gelatin. Mice and rats exposed to blue 1 and 2, red 3 and yellow 6 suffered from brain, adrenal gland, thyroid and kidney tumors.

Always buy organic produce. This one’s a no-brainer, but the list wouldn’t be complete without it. Lingering pesticides can lead to nervous and reproductive system damage, not to mention cancer.

Use stainless steel or cast iron cookware to prepare your meals. The Teflon used to create nonstick surfaces can release noxious gases when exposed to high temperatures, which puts you at risk for heart disease.

Never microwave food in plastic bowls, containers or dishes. Exposure to heat causes the bisphenol-A found in plastics to break down and potentially contaminate your food. Also, make sure to hand wash them.

For more information, check out 12 Dangerous Food Additives and the 7 Most Dangerous Ingredients in Conventional Foods.

Image: Mzelle Biscotte