“The suffering of little children is not what is so intolerable, but the fact that it is undeserved.”…Albert Camus Consider the following trends in children’s health: The statistic are frightening…. Nearly 5 million U.S. children suffer from Asthma…1 in every 10 children! The number of children with asthma has DOUBLED in the last 15 years. Asthma deaths are on the rise in children and in young people, increasing 118% between 1980 and 1993. Asthma accounts for 1/6 of ALL pediatric emergency room visits. 1.8 million emergency room visits….and 10 million doctor visits each year! What makes the disease so dangerous….. is that it can kill in a matter of minutes. Children with asthma, cancer and birth defects do not smoke cigarettes, drink alcoholic beverages, or work in dirty industries…. nor…can their cancer be something they were exposed to 20 years ago. So What’s going on???? GET MORE INFO A growing body of evidence links our children’s health problems to chemical exposures while in their mothers’ wombs, through the consumption of breast milk, drinking water, and their immediate environment. Children continue to be exposed to toxicants in the air, water and food. No one knows for sure what is behind the increase, but a PRIME SUSPECT is the greater amount of time people spend in tightly sealed, air conditioned workplaces and HOMES, where they are exposed to such indoor irritants. In a 5 year study…. the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) found that air born chemicals levels in homes were as much as 70 times higher inside then outside! One of the most common triggers of Asthma is indoor pollutants. The most important first step is to realize that you ….more than anyone…. have control over your child’s indoor environment. The choices you make regarding products brought into your home, as well as various household practices affect your asthmatic child. It is very important  to reduce environmental triggers….such as dust mites, tobacco smoke, animal dander, cockroach allergens, pollens and mold …..along with chemicals in household products. Cleaning Products are among the most hazardous chemicals you will find in your home! Exposure to common household products can make your children sick. Something was wrong with Amilya Antonetti’s son David. She knew it shortly after arriving home from the hospital six years ago. “He never turned that pinkish color babies turn,” she says. “He looked gray, and he would cry until he passed out.” At first doctors thought David was colicky and that his crying spells would end. They didn’t, and doctors diagnosed asthma and severe allergies, but they still couldn’t explain what was sending David to the emergency room. “We were in and out of the hospital, and we were losing him”, says his 32 year-old-mother from San Leandro, Calif. Then, around David’s first birthday, she discovered the trigger for her son’s attacks: HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS. … .items she kept in her own kitchen cabinets. “Every time I would clean the house, he’d have a major attack a couple hours later. I didn’t realize until I started to keep a journal,” she says. She made the connections while flipping through a couple of months of entries. But even then, Antonetti says…she struggled to understand how such a normal routine could affect her son. She asked other moms if their kids reacted to any cleaning products. She also began doing research, and ultimately she went to homeopathic and medical doctors who confirmed that David could be allergic to these everyday items. (Time magazine…March 20, 2000) STOP….cleaning your house…. until you understand the dangers of many household products. You are in control! Household chemicals are the easiest of all toxins to replace! There are manufactures with health and wellness in mind. Safe and effective products are available. It’s YOUR choice! GET MORE INFO Children spend up to 90% of their time indoors and up to 12 hours a day in one room. Babies breathe twice as fast as grownups. Once they start crawling, babies live 6 inches from the floor! Here is where they may be exposed to toxicants in dust, soil, and carpets as well as to pesticide vapors in low-lying layers of air. Pesticides come into the home on our shoes and then left on the carpet.  Disinfectants are sprayed in the air with residue permeating the carpet. And…where do children play??? GET MORE INFO We believe the proper approach to Asthma is to try to PREVENT attacks, not just deal with them as they happen. Children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental exposures than adults. Our children… today live in a different environment from that of previous generations. One of the key contributors has been the discovery and use of thousands of new chemicals. Currently the use of more than 70,000 chemicals are allowed in the United States. Little is known about the health hazards of the majority of these chemicals …especially on Children. Exposure to environmental toxins, such as lead , are now known to cause permanent damage to a child’s nervous system.  Children are not just …. “little adults” when it comes to environmental exposures. Young children breathe more rapidly and take in more air in proportion to their body weight than do adults. Their respiratory systems are still developing  and they have narrow airways. Therefore air pollution affects children more than adults. They also have higher metabolic rates and a higher proportionate intake of food and liquid than do adults. The United States has seen a worrisome increase in certain childhood diseases. The incidence of two types of childhood cancers has risen significantly over the past 15 years: Acute Lymphocytic leukemia is up 10%  &  brain tumors are up more than 30%. Moms …we CAN make a difference. We are a group of motivated moms with a mission: Happy Healthy Homes! If we all do a little it will help a lot! GET MORE INFO We can easily reduce the amount and toxicity of waste leaving our homes while at the same time save money. Careful planning can help to avoid the need for many potentially toxic products. Careful shopping will allow us to find products and packaging that can break down harmlessly in the environment, or that can be recycled or reused.