Books Planet Home And The Healthy Home

A GOOD BOOK TO READ

I often browse at the library for new non-fiction books just to see what's being talked about. One that definitely caught my eye was Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, cofounder of Seventh Generation products.

Another that I couldn't walk away from was The Healthy Home by Dr. Myron Wentz and Dave Wentz with Donna K. Wallace doing a lot of the interviewing.

Both these books deal with what we are poisoning our atmosphere with but most importantly, what we are poisoning our homes with.

Let's take a closer look at both of these wonderful books and some of the stellar tips you'll find in each one to make your home a safer place!

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PLANET HOME by Jeffrey Hollender

The book is actually entitled Planet Home: Conscious Choices for Cleaning and Greening the World You Care Most About. While that's a mouthful to be sure, the title says it all.

Here are just some of the topics that this great little book covers

• Cleaning products and chemicals. How to make your own for a safer environment or what to buy in terms of green products
• Kitchen equipment in terms of energy efficiency but also in terms of green products from cookware to appliances
• Plastics - how to use them to best protect yourself and the environment - and which ones to stay away from using
• Understanding labels - from clothing you buy to cleaning products you use every day
• The truth about antibacterials - are they all they're cracked up to be?
• Taking care of pests and insects the environmentally safe way
• What truly organic food claims are real and which aren't
• The truth behind statements like "range free" and "grass fed" - you'd be surprised what we believe that isn't true!
• How to cook your food safely and how to make sure your food is "safe"
• Packaged foods including beverages and how they're made - are they safe?
• Safe flooring materials to choose for your home
• Safety savvy when it comes to your bedroom furnishings
• How to keep your home's air clean and pure
• Personal care products that could be harming you and using safe cosmetics
• Toys, arts and crafts that are safe materials for your children
• Safe furniture and products you use for decorating your house (such as paints)
• Electronic equipment and the safety of it all
• How to care for your pets without killing them with chemicals
• Fighting germs the green way
• Washing and cleaning what you have to protect it but also ways to protect yourself
• Managing your yard, garage, basement or attics in eco-friendly ways

These are just a few of the many topics in this fantastic book. I went so far as to try 2 of the cleaning products you can make from scratch and they worked as well as if not better than store-bought products that I pay a fortune for - and have vaporous fumes to boot.

I give this book a 2 thumbs up! It's definitely worth the read.

Visit PlanetHomeBook.com for more info.

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THE HEALTHY HOME by Dr. Myron Wentz & Dave Wentz

This book also packs a great title. The book is actually called The Healthy Home: Simple Truths to Protect Your Family From Hidden Household Dangers.

Again, the book is true to the title and points out some of these dangers that we could all become better educated about and reduce our risks.

This book is really unique in that it gives you a quiz in every single chapter to find out how safety savvy you are when it comes to environmental dangers that are present in your own home or in products that you use routinely.

There are 6 categories that are covered:

1. WELCOME - Where you'll learn about how Dr. Wentz and his son got into the business of raising awareness of hidden dangers in our home.
2. THE BEDROOM - You'll get a glimpse of many of the hidden dangers in the room where we spend most of our time each day and what to do to prevent toxicity - for us as well as for our children. We all use products in our bedrooms or have things in our bedroom that should be placed elsewhere away from our bodies. You'll get a detailed description of the hazards and how to prevent toxic exposures. You'll even learn the truth about dry cleaning and how you can reduce your risk but still have some clothes dry cleaned.
3. THE BATHROOM - You'll find out what beauty products you may be using that should never touch your skin. Cleaning products are covered extensively as possible poisons that can be avoided. Medicines are also a source of possible harm to your body and they cover which products are safest to use. Even products like fluoride toothpaste and its dangers are covered in great detail. You'd be surprised what is lurking in your bathroom that may harm you!
4. THE KITCHEN - In this chapter, you'll do some quizzes about the foods you eat and how you prepare them. You'll learn better ways to prepare foods and to avoid carcinogens by using certain kinds of plastics. You'll learn about beverages from drinking water to soda to filtration systems that are safest for clean drinking water. You'll also get some more fantastic recipes for homemade cleaning products that are safe to use and good for the environment.
5. LIVING AREAS - Moving on to the rest of the house, you'll find out the truth about all those electronic appliances we all seem to hold dear to us. You'll learn which wireless devices have the lowest emissions and are the safest to use in the home or office environment. You'll also learn about eco-friendly home furnishings and things like which vacuum is truly the best green vacuum.
6. THE GARAGE AND THE YARD - Last but not least, you'll find out how to keep your yard beautiful but reduce the toxic load on the environment with all the chemicals. You'll learn about the materials in your garage and how to use "green" materials or how best to finish off your garage so that it's not toxic. You'll learn about that "new car smell" that we all like so well! It might just scare you. You'll also learn about how to rid yourself of pests without bringing in a tanker full of DDT to do the job.

All in all, this book with its quiz format and its great cartoons is an eye opener as to some of the practices that we have assumed are safe when in fact they could be responsible for tearing down our immune system and even leading to things like depression.

Dr. Wentz is a scientist so the weight of his words truly do hit home. When you read some of the reasoning behind some of their suggestions for a cleaner environment (meaning green) and paying closer attention to what we put in and on our bodies, it really makes sense.

Be sure and visit their website, myhealthyhome.com for information on just about anything you need to know about!

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GOOD BOOKS TO READ

In short, these 2 books are fabulous reads. Not because they're ground breaking in detail about the harmful effects of our home environment on our bodies, but because they are well put and easy to follow.

Anyone can benefit from the simple homemade cleaning recipes and the easy "fixes" that we can all accomplish literally in our own backyard.

If you're looking for sensible advice on how to "green up" your life, these 2 books are both the ticket. They are also written in such a way that you can index them frequently if you have a question about something in your life. You can also read them a bit at a time to absorb the intelligent information you'll find on just about any aspect of our life.

They both go a long way to advocating a greener future and I totally applaud both books and the message they convey!

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